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At China military forum, Russian defense minister accuses the US of fueling geopolitical tensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday the United States is fueling geopolitical tensions to uphold its “hegemony” and warned of the risk of confrontation between major countries.Speaking at a defense forum in Beijing, Shoigu also said the U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies are undermining stability in the region.“To maintain its geopolitical and strategic dominance, the United States is deliberately undermining the basis of international security and strategic stability,” Shoigu said, according to a simultaneous translation provided at the Xiangshan Forum, which China’s biggest annual event centered on military diplomacy.He added that the U.S. and its Western allies are threatening Russia through NATO’s “eastward expansion.” “Western countries aim to escalate the conflict with Russia and increase the risk of major country confrontation,” he said. “This will lead to serious consequences.” Turning to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Shoigu said Moscow was open ...

As economy falters, more Chinese migrants take a perilous journey to the US border to seek asylum

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The young Chinese man looked lost and exhausted when Border Patrol agents left him at a transit station. Deng Guangsen, 28, had spent the last two months traveling to San Diego from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, through seven countries on plane, bus and foot, including traversing Panama’s dangerous Darién Gap jungle. “I feel nothing,” Deng said in the San Diego parking lot, insisting on using the broken English he learned from the “Harry Potter” film series. “I have no brother, no sister. I have nobody.”Deng is part of a major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route that has become increasingly popular with the help of social media. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year, according to Panamanian immigration authorities. Chinese asylum-seekers who spoke to The Associated Press, ...

Takeaways from AP’s reporting on Chinese migrants who traverse the Darién Gap to reach the US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. is seeing a big increase in Chinese immigrants arriving using a relatively new and perilous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle, thanks in part to social media posts and videos providing step-by-step guidance. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year, according to Panamanian immigration authorities. Chinese migrants using this route fly to Ecuador and then make their way north to the U.S.-Mexico border.Chinese migrants interviewed by The Associated Press said they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting:HOW MANY CHINESE MIGRANTS ARE COMING THROUGH THE DARIÉN GAP?The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing the Darién has been rising gradually, from 913 in January to 2,588 in September. For the first nine months of this year, Pa...

Illinois man to appear in court on hate crime and murder charges in attack on Muslim mother and son

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian-American woman and her young son is scheduled to appear in court on Monday following his indictmen t by an Illinois grand jury.Joseph Czuba, 71, is expected to enter a plea at an arraignment on eight counts in the indictment filed last week. He is charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, and the wounding of Hanaan Shahin on Oct. 14. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.Shahin told police that Czuba, her landlord in Plainfield in Will County, was upset over the Israel-Hamas war and attacked them after she had urged him to “pray for peace.”Shahin, 32, is recovering from multiple stab wounds. Hundreds of people attended her son’s funeral on Oct. 16.The murder charge in the indictment against Czuba describes the boy’s death as the result of “exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior.”Defense attorney George Lenard has sa...

Court arguments begin in effort to bar Trump from presidential ballot under ‘insurrection’ clause

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The campaign to use the U.S. Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to bar former President Donald Trump from running for the White House again enters a new phase this week as hearings begin in two states on lawsuits that might end up reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.A weeklong hearing on one lawsuit to bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado begins Monday, while on Thursday oral arguments are scheduled before the Minnesota Supreme Court on an effort to kick the former president off the ballot in that state.Whether the judges keep Trump on the ballot or boot him, their rulings are likely to be swiftly appealed, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court has never ruled on the Civil War-era provision in the 14th Amendment that prohibits those who swore an oath to uphold the constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding higher office.“We’ve had hearings with presidential candidates debating their eligibility be...

Idaho left early education up to families. One town set out to get universal preschool anyway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — After reading a book about the five senses to a semicircle of rapt 4-year-olds, Abi Hawker tells the children in her afternoon preschool class that she has a surprise for them.She drags a small popcorn maker onto the carpet and asks them to consider: Which of their senses might be activated when she pours the kernels into the machine? When the kernels heat up? When the popcorn begins to pop?Moments later, the children shriek with joy as the corn kernels burst. While Hawker explains what the kids are seeing, she asks them questions that connect back to the day’s lesson. From the activity, the class transitions to snack time, stimulating two more senses: touch and taste. A few years ago, this experience would’ve been inaccessible to nearly half of the children in Hawker’s classroom. Their families don’t make enough money to afford early childhood education. Other kids come from families who may have the means but, until recently, didn’t make early learning...

Some striking UAW members carry family legacies, Black middle-class future along with picket signs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

WAYNE, Mich. (AP) — As Britney Johnson paced the picket line outside Ford’s Wayne Assembly plant, she wasn’t just carrying a sign demanding higher pay and other changes.She also carried a legacy of car factory jobs and union wages that allowed generations of her family to enjoy middle-class lifestyles and that for years had been unattainable for many Black Americans.Johnson’s great-grandfather, grandfather and mother all worked on assembly lines for one or more of Detroit’s automakers, as did some of her uncles.“We told her she’s representing our family,” Johnson’s mother, Tracy Brooks, jokes.It seems the efforts of Johnson and her co-workers were starting to pay off. All striking Ford workers were called Wednesday by the UAW to return to their jobs after the union said it reached a tentative contract agreement with Ford that would give them a 25% general wage increase, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $...

Takeaways from the AP’s investigation into aging oil ships

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

OKITIPUPA, NIGERIA (AP) — Until early last year, a rusting oil ship named the Trinity Spirit floated off the coast of Nigeria, pulling crude oil from the ocean floor. Then, last February, it exploded, collapsing into the ocean along with 40,000 barrels of oil. Five workers were killed and two others presumed dead, their bodies never found. Oil slicks were visible in satellite imagery for days.The Associated Press drew on ship databases, court documents, and the accounts of three survivors to offer an inside look at the yearslong decline of the aging ship, the numerous warning signs, and the explosion’s messy aftermath — as the survivors, who complained of dangerous working conditions and withheld wages, were accused of setting the ship ablaze.The Trinity Spirit also fits a wider pattern of old tankers put to work storing and extracting oil even while on the brink of mechanical breakdowns. Here are takeaways from AP’s report.___This story was supported by funding from the Walton Fami...

Democrat Brandon Presley seeks big turnout in Nov. 7 bid to unseat Mississippi’s Republican governor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — At a hotel overlooking the Mississippi River in Natchez, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Brandon Presley told a few dozen Black and white supporters that Mississippi’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, is trying to hold onto money and power by sowing racial division.“They’re sitting up in that governor’s mansion tonight, I bet you money, tinkling their little glasses, smoking their cigars,” Presley said, imitating someone holding a tumbler of whiskey. “And they’re talking about how, ‘Well, nobody’s going to come vote.’ And particularly Black Mississippians. They don’t think you’re going to commit.”That brought murmurs from the crowd. One man called out: “We’re going to be there.”Presley, the 46-year-old second cousin of rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley, will need a bipartisan, multiracial coalition to vote in unprecedented numbers to accomplish his goal of unseating Reeves. The state hasn’t wavered as a conservative stronghold i...

Deadly explosion off Nigeria points to threat posed by aging oil ships around the world

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:59 GMT

OKITIPUPA, Nigeria (AP) — It was the dead of night when the ship caught fire, Patrick Aganyebi remembers, but the flames made it seem as bright as day.The explosion that night woke him and knocked him to the floor. He tucked his phone and his ID card in his pockets, strapped on a life jacket and made his way to the upper deck. As the flames barreled toward him, he prepared to jump nearly 100 feet (30 meters) into the sea.Five workers were killed and two others presumed dead in the blast on the Trinity Spirit, a rusting converted oil tanker anchored 15 miles (24 km) off the coast of Nigeria that pulled crude oil from the ocean floor. It was by the grace of God, Aganyebi said, that he and two fellow crewmen escaped, rescued by a pair of fishermen as the burning vessel sank along with 40,000 barrels of oil.The Trinity Spirit’s explosion in February of last year stands among the deadliest tragedies on an oil ship or platform in recent years. The Associated Press’ review of court documen...