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Editorial: Climate least of our worries as China eyes Cuban spy base

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

As John Kerry looks forward to reaching an accord with China over climate change, the communist country is making moves to build a spy base 100 miles off the U.S. coast.Something is wrong with this picture.Climate czar Kerry sees the world through Green-tinted glasses.“We very much hope to be able to find the pathway to a breakthrough that could make a huge difference,” Kerry told CNBC’s Tania Bryer at the January World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.That was right before a Chinese spy balloon wafted over the U.S. As NBC News reported, that balloon was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, according to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official.That didn’t deter Kerry from mulling a visit to China to for a climate chat. He said last month that China invited him to visit “in the near term” for talks on averting a glob...

‘Heroes of the Golden Mask’ needs saving

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

Billed as the final performance by the late actor Christopher Plummer, who died in February 5, 2021, “Heroes of the Golden Mask” (or “Masks,” references differ) is a weak animated effort, telling the story of a band of five warriors. One of them is a homeless kid from Chicago who take on an “evil conqueror” in an ancient Chinese kingdom named Kun-Yi (voiced by Ron Perlman). The other “heroes” of the film’s title are Li (Natasha Liu Bordizzo, “Day Shift”), a plucky young woman whose father Jiahao (Byron Mann) falls in battle in opening scenes; the big, round and blue Antlantean hammer-wielder Aesop (Patton Oswalt), shape-shifter Zhu (Osric Chau), who can transform into any of the 12 creatures of the Chinese Zodiac, and over-sized Incan warrior Zuma (Zeus Mendoza).When these warriors don their golden masks, they are endowed with superpowers. Li becomes armed with a mystic bow that never runs out of arrows. Aesop’s hammer becomes super-charged. Zuma can fire beams of light....

Dear Abby: Woman’s final wishes create angst in the family

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

Dear Abby: I am 76. My husband and I planned our final wishes for cremation because I have had a lifelong fear of being buried underground. My children from my first marriage are Jewish and very much against cremation. When I told them my wishes, they attacked me with a barrage of negatives about cremation, such as, “You won’t go to heaven,” “You won’t see your deceased mother or grandson in heaven,” “We won’t be able to say kaddish for you,” etc., so I immediately changed my plans. My husband and I purchased side-by-side crypts, thinking it was an acceptable alternative.I was wrong. For the last month, they have continued to push me to change to a regular burial. I finally had enough and told them to respect my choices and never discuss this with me again. So now, no contact at all except an occasional text from my grandchildren. Any advice or help would be appreciated. — Unhappy in FloridaDear Unhappy: I assume from your ...

Delayed justice: 3 states remove all time limits on child sex abuse lawsuits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Ann Allen loved going to church and the after-school social group led by a dynamic priest back in the 1960s.The giggling fun with friends always ended with a game of hide and seek. Each week, the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino chose one girl to hide with him. Allen said when it was her turn, she was sexually assaulted, at age 7, in the recesses of St. Peter’s Catholic Church.“I don’t remember how I got out of that cellar and I don’t think I ever will. But I remember it like it’s yesterday. I remember the smells. The sounds. I remember what he said, and what he did,” she said.Allen, 64, is one of more than two dozen people who have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, over the past year, seeking delayed justice since lawmakers allowed lawsuits for abuse that happened long ago and can’t be pursued in criminal courts either because of time limits or evidence diminishing over time. More survivors are pursuing cases as states increasingly conside...

Supreme Court voting rights ruling stuns minority voters, who hope it expands their representation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week’s Supreme Court decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional districts was seen by many minority lawmakers and voting rights activists as a stunning victory with the potential to become a major stepping stone for undoing political maps that dilute the strength of communities of color.Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state lawmaker who has long been politically active in the state, knew there would be a decision since the court heard arguments in the case last fall. He was not anticipating being happy with the outcome, given that previous rulings of the conservative-leaning court had essentially gutted some of its most important provisions.“I was afraid they were going to go ahead and wipe out section 2,” he said, referring to the part of the Voting Rights Act at stake in the Alabama case.He was at his law office Thursday in Selma, scene of one of the most pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement, when news of the 5-4 ruling in favor...

Judge weighs challenge to gag order in University of Idaho killings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

A judge overseeing the case against Bryan Kohberger, charged with killing four University of Idaho students last fall, is set to hear arguments Friday over a gag order that largely bars attorneys and other parties in the case from speaking with news reporters. A coalition of more than 30 media organizations has challenged the order, saying it violates the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and a free press, as has a lawyer for one of the victim’s families. But prosecutors and the defendant’s lawyers insist it’s needed to prevent prejudicial news coverage that could damage Kohberger’s right to a fair trial.“It remains appropriate to have an Order reminding lawyers and their agents of the rules of engagement in this country and that we try cases in court, not in the press,” one of Kohberger’s attorneys, Jay Weston Logsdon, wrote in a memo to the court this week.Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connect...

Speaker McCarthy eyes new commission to tackle nation’s debt, but many Democrats are wary

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is studying the history books and considering the appointment of a mix of lawmakers and business leaders as he lays the groundwork for a new commission to tackle the nation’s growing debt.McCarthy is fresh off his biggest political victory since becoming speaker in January. He got the White House to negotiate on a bill that suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 while also producing a projected $1.5 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade. But the legislation only focused on a sliver of the federal spending that occurs each year and excluded programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that account for the majority of government spending and are the biggest drivers of the debt. McCarthy has embraced the idea of establishing a new fiscal commission to find additional deficit reduction. While similar commissions have notched success in the past, the most recent ones failed to muster enough support for Cong...

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly rise, lifted by bull market on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly rose Friday, led by a jump on the Tokyo Stock Exchange where share prices got a boost of optimism from a new bull market on Wall Street. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 1.8% in morning trading to 32,217.76. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 7,126.50. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.9% to 2,634.96. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.3% to 19,352.59. The Shanghai Composite inched up less than 0.1% to 3,215.62. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to carry it 20% above the bottom it hit in October. That means Wall Street’s main measure of health has climbed out of a painful bear market, which saw it drop 25.4% over roughly nine months.The arrival of a bull market also doesn’t mean the stock market has made it back to its prior heights. A 25% drop for the S&P 500 requires a 33% rally just to get back to even. In Thursday’s trading, the S&P 500 rose 26.41 points to 4,293.93. The Dow gained 0.5% to 33,833.6...

In this youth baseball league, fans who mistreat umpires are sentenced to do the job themselves

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

DEPTFORD, N.J. (AP) — The April Facebook post hardly seemed like national news at the time for Deptford Little League president Don Bozzuffi. He’d lost patience when two umpires resigned in the wake of persistent spectator abuse. So he wrote an updated code of conduct.It specified: Any spectator deemed in violation would be banned from the complex until three umpiring assignments were completed. If not, the person would be barred from any Deptford youth sports facilities for a year.In G-rated terms (unlike the ones that will get you tossed), the mandate just wants helicopter parents to calm the heck down. No 9-year-old will remember, as an adult, being safe or out on a bang-bang play at first. But how deep would be the cut of watching dad get tossed out of the game and banished for bad behavior?The league doesn’t want to find out. “So far, it’s working like I’d hoped and just been a deterrent,” the 68-year-old Bozzuffi said.The problem, though, isn’t limited to Deptford and its hand...

Trump indicted in classified documents case in a historic first for a former president

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:21 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw.The Justice Department was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a historic court appearance next week in the midst of a 2024 presidential campaign punctuated by criminal prosecutions in multiple states.The indictment carries unmistakably grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Trump’s convicted. But it also has enormous political implications, potentially upending a Republican presidential primary that Trump had been dominating and testing anew the willingness of GOP voters and party leaders to stick with a now twice-indicted candidate who could face still more charges. And it sets the stage for a sensational trial centered on claims that a man once entrusted to safeg...