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US announces new weapons aid for Ukraine as Congress is stalled on more funding

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a $175 million package of military aid to Ukraine, including guided missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armor systems and high-speed anti-radiation missiles, the Pentagon and State Department announced on Wednesday.The latest aid comes as Congress remains stalled on legislation that would provide new funding for Ukraine as it battles to push back Russian forces, as well as money for Israel’s war with Hamas and other security needs. The Biden administration has said funding to aid Ukraine is running out, and the Pentagon packages of weapons and other equipment for the war have become much smaller in recent months.In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that unless Congress approves the supplemental funding, “this will be one of the last security assistance packages we can provide to Ukraine.”The White House is seeking nearly $106 billion, but the bill has gotten bogged down in negotiations o...

British American Tobacco writes down $31.5 billion as it shifts its business away from cigarettes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

Shares of British American Tobacco tumbled Wednesday after the owner of Camel and American Spirit cigarettes took an impairment charge of about $31.5 billion, mainly related to its struggling U.S. cigarette brands with the number of people who smoke in steep decline.In a financial update, London-based British American Tobacco said it is in the process of transforming its business from traditional, combustible products to “smoke-free” ones. Its goal is to get half its revenue from non-combustibles by 2035. Combustibles currently account for about 83% of its sales, according to the data firm FactSet.In 2017, British American Tobacco bought Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds American Inc. for about $49 billion in cash and stock. Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a survey that showed U.S. cigarette smoking in another all-time low, with 1 in 9 adults saying they were current smokers. In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers.The ...

¿Qué es Hanukkah? Cómo y cuándo se celebra en todo el mundo este 2023

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

Hanukkah (también escrito Janucá u otras transliteraciones del hebreo) es la “fiesta de las luces” del judaísmo. Durante ocho anocheceres consecutivos, los judíos se reúnen con familiares y amigos para encender una vela adicional en la menorá, un candelabro de múltiples brazos.En hebreo, Hanukkah significa “dedicación”, y la festividad marca la nueva dedicación del Templo en Jerusalén en el siglo II a. C., después de que un pequeño grupo de combatientes judíos lo liberaron de las fuerzas ocupantes extranjeras.Con la pequeña provisión de aceite ritualmente puro que encontraron en el templo, encendieron la menorá y permaneció encendida durante ocho días. El ritual de encender una vela todas las noches, así como el énfasis en cocinar alimentos en aceite, como las tortitas de patata llamadas latkes, conmemoran este aceite milagrosamente duradero.¿Cuándo es Hanukkah 2023?Las fechas de la festividad se basan en el mes hebreo de Kislev, que suele coincidir con noviembre-diciemb...

The UK plans to ignore part of its human rights law to revive a Rwanda asylum plan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government triggered criticism from opponents and division inside the governing Conservatives on Wednesday with a bill that will let it ignore a part of the country’s human rights law in order to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. The legislation is part of government plans to overcome a block by the U.K. Supreme Court on its Rwanda policy. The court ruled last month that the plan was illegal because Rwanda isn’t a safe country for refugees.Britain and Rwanda have since signed a treaty pledging to strengthen protection for migrants. The U.K. government says that will allow it to pass a law declaring Rwanda a safe destination.Home Secretary James Cleverly said the Safety of Rwanda Bill “will make absolutely clear in U.K. law that Rwanda is a safe country.” He urged lawmakers in Parliament to pass the legislation, even though it may violate international human rights rules.The government says the law will allow it to “disapply” se...

Lawsuit accuses Sean Combs, 2 others of raping 17-year-old girl in 2003; Combs denies allegations

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman sued the hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday, claiming he and two other men raped her 20 years ago in a New York City recording studio when she was 17.The woman, whose name wasn’t disclosed in the court filing, is the fourth person to file a lawsuit accusing Combs of sexual assault in recent weeks.The lawsuit alleges that Combs, Harve Pierre, the former president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, and an unnamed man gave the accuser drugs and alcohol and then taking turns raping her inside Daddy’s House Recording Studio, a studio owned by Combs and Bad Boy, in 2003.Combs, 54, denied the allegations in a statement. A request for comment from Pierre was sent to Bad Boy Entertainment.According to the lawsuit, Pierre met the teenager in Michigan and flew with her on a private plane to meet Combs.“As alleged in the complaint, Defendants preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager as part of a sex trafficking scheme that involved plying her with drugs...

Police: Suspect dead amid reports of multiple victims in shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police said a suspect was found dead Wednesday as officers responded what officials of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, called a “confirmed active shooter” on campus.The university said on X, formerly Twitter, the shooter was at the Beam Hall, Frank and Estella Building, home of UNLV’s Lee Business School, and that police were responding to an additional report of shots fired at the nearby student union.Las Vegas police posted on X that a suspect “has been located and is deceased” about 40 minutes after the initial alert was posted.“This is not a test,” the university wrote. “RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.”The shooting occurred in a city still scarred by one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history, the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas, in which 60 were killed and hundreds more wounded.

German Left Party dissolves parliamentary faction after key member breaks away

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

Germany’s Left Party officially dissolved its parliamentary faction on Wednesday, after one of the party’s former icons, Sahra Wagenknecht, broke away to form a populist rival party.“This is certainly a historic turning point and of course it is also a bitter defeat,” said Dietmar Bartsch, a Left Party parliamentarian who had served as co-chair of the faction.Members of the Left Party will remain in the German parliament, or Bundestag, but will no longer be part of an official faction, or caucus. The disbanding means the party loses financial support and is forced to liquidate assets and fire staff. The parliamentary rights of its members will also be limited.The dissolution of the Left Party faction comes after Wagenknecht, the longtime face of the party, resigned in October to form a new anti-establishment party, bringing along nine parliamentarians from the Left Party with her.Wagenknecht is among Germany’s most popular politicians and has dri...

Tourists are flooding Mexico’s wine country. They’re also destroying it

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

Cindy Carcamo | (TNS) Los Angeles TimesVALLE DE GUADALUPE, Mexico — Sunset closed in on the 70-year-old vines at Vinicola Mogor Badan on a spring afternoon. The sky transitioned to an icy hue. Natalia Badan, matriarch and owner of the winery, walked her family’s land and surveyed the vineyard and organic farm her Swiss-French parents built with rocks and mud in the 1950s here in Baja California.Moments later, the chirping birds went silent. The bass started up.A loud thumping emanated from her new neighbor — a chic, open-air dining establishment — abutting her grapevines. For years, the neighboring land was a carob tree ranch. Now, it’s a restaurant and bar, part of a proliferation of businesses meant to serve and draw in tourists to Baja’s trendy wine country.It’s the kind of place made for Instagram, where out-of-towners snap photos of themselves next to resident zebras or waiters dressed in safari-inspired outfits serving decadent cocktails.Badan shook her head.“And, there is the...

Harvard University alums say President Claudine Gay should resign after ‘shocking’ testimony about antisemitism on campus

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

Harvard University’s president is facing major heat after her “stunning and utterly disappointing” Congressional testimony about rising antisemitism on college campuses, as alums call on the embattled prez to resign.President Claudine Gay on Tuesday testified in front of a House committee following the recent spike of antisemitism in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. Jewish and Israeli students have been threatened and assaulted on campuses since the Oct. 7 terror attacks.Gay at the hearing was eviscerated by Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who continued to ask the Harvard president whether student protesters calling for the genocide of Jews is allowed on campus.Gay reiterated that the campus protects free speech, even of views that are offensive and hateful. She refused to characterize calls for the genocide of Jews as a breach of Harvard’s code of conduct, instead saying the offense depends on the context.Her testimony was “s...

Red Sox acquire RHP Justin Slaten from Mets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:46 GMT

After Justin Slaten was scooped up by the New York Mets in the Rule 5 Draft before they had a chance to pick, the Red Sox went out and made sure they got him anyway.The Red Sox announced Wednesday that they’d acquired the 26-year-old right-hander in a trade with the Mets, giving up minor league left-hander Ryan Ammons and cash considerations in exchange.The Rule 5 restrictions will still apply to Slaten, meaning he must spend the whole season on the Red Sox big league roster or be offered back to his original team, the Texas Rangers.Slaten was taken in the Rule 5 Draft after posting a 2.87 ERA and 86 strikeouts over 59.2 innings split between Texas’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. Originally a third-round pick out of the University of New Mexico in 2019, Slaten was promoted to Triple-A in September and allowed just one run over 8.1 innings in five appearances with the Round Rock Express.He boasts a particularly devastating slider, and Baseball America recently identifi...