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Lucas: Targeting Trump makes him stronger

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

Donald Trump ought to report his latest pending indictment as an in-kind campaign contribution.An in-kind contribution is when a thing of value is given or loaned to influence a federal election.Giving a storefront for headquarters to a candidate would be an in-kind contribution, for instance. It is a thing of value.Sometimes it is better than cash.The latest thing of “value” granted Trump is the overwhelming amount of media attention he is getting related to the letter he received from the Justice Department last Sunday.Trump is probably better known around the world than Joe Biden.The letter informed Trump that he is a target of the department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, an election that Trump maintains was “rigged.”Such a letter is an indication that Democrat headhunter Jack Smith, the special counsel, will seek to indict Trump any day now.The charges could include   conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, ...

China urges Japan not to disrupt chip industry after technology curbs take effect

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government appealed to Japan on Monday not to disrupt the semiconductor industry after curbs on exports of Japanese chip-making technology took effect, adding to technology restrictions Washington and its allies have imposed on China on security grounds.The Japanese restrictions that took effect Sunday limit Chinese access to tools for etching microscopically small circuits on advanced chips for smartphones, artificial intelligence and other applications. The Netherlands also joined the United States in limiting access to chipmaking tools that Washington says could be used to develop weapons.“We are deeply dissatisfied and regret the act,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning. She urged Japan to “prevent relevant measures from interfering with the normal semiconductor industry cooperation between the two countries.”The ruling Communist Party has invested billions of dollars in building Chinese chip foundries but needs Western and Japanese technology ...

15 people were killed after a boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island. 33 others were rescued

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An overloaded passenger boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing 15 people, rescuers said Monday. Authorities said that the 33 other passengers survived. The vessel was traveling from Lanto village in Buton Central regency in Southeast Sulawesi province to nearby Lagili village when it capsized just after midnight on Monday, local search and rescue agency head Muhammad Arafah said.The wooden boat was designed to carry 20 people.A search and rescue team initially found 15 bodies and rescued six people, and had continued their search for the others. But the operation was later called off when officials determined that all on board had been accounted for.“There were 27 people who survived, but had not previously been reported, because they went straight home,” local search and rescue agency head Muhammad Arafah said in a statement.Three inflatable boats, two fishing boats and six divers were deployed while the search was underway.Thousands of res...

Oui, oui: Jill Biden is in Paris to mark the US return to the UN’s educational and scientific agency

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden has represented her country at the Olympics in Tokyo, a king’s coronation in London and a royal wedding in Jordan. She gets another chance to put her ambassadorial skills to work this week when the United States formally rejoins a United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture around the globe.Biden arrived in Paris early Monday, accompanied by her daughter, Ashley Biden, after flying overnight from Washington to join other VIPs and speak at a ceremony Tuesday at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The American flag will be raised to mark the U.S. return to UNESCO membership after a five-year absence.UNESCO aims to foster global collaboration in education, science and culture. It also designates World Heritage sites, deeming them worthy of eternal preservation.The agency on Sunday condemned Russia’s attack on a cathedral in Odesa and other heritage sites in Ukraine in recent day...

Stock market today: World shares mixed as investors watch for Fed rate hike

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mixed on Monday as investors cautiously awaited another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Benchmarks rose in London, Tokyo and Frankfurt but fell in Paris and Shanghai. U.S. futures edged higher while oil prices fell.U.S. futures edged lower and oil prices also fell. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its federal funds rate on Wednesday to its highest level since 2001. Investors are hoping that might be the final increase of the tightening cycle because inflation has been cooling since last summer. The federal funds rate started 2022 at virtually zero. Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher to 16,188.55. In Paris, the CAC 20 shed 0.2% to 7,418.77. Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat at 7,663.68. The future for the S&P 500 advanced nearly 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1%. On Friday, the S&P 500 eked out a gain of less than 0.1% to cap its eighth winning week in the last 10. The Dow edged up by...

Specter of right wing entering Spanish government fades after inconclusive national election

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spain may be facing political gridlock and possibly a new election, but a national ballot produced one result that will be welcomed across the capitals of Europe: a far-right party aiming to get its hands on the levers of power was thwarted.Spain’s Vox party, with its ultranationalist bent, lost support among voters in Sunday’s election, dashing its hopes to be a kingmaker and enter a governing coalition that would have given the far right its first share of power in Spain since Francisco Franco’s 20th century dictatorship. The mainstream conservative Popular Party won the election, but performed well below polling data that had forecast it could oust Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez if it formed a government with Vox as a junior partner. Even though Sánchez’s Socialists finished second, they and their allied parties celebrated the outcome as a victory since their combined forces gained slightly more seats than the Popular Party and Vox. The bloc that would...

US announces punitive measures over concerns Cambodia’s elections were ‘neither free nor fair’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s longtime ruling party on Monday lauded its landslide victory in weekend elections as a clear mandate for the next five years, but the United States said its stifling of the opposition meant the vote could not be considered free or fair and that Washington was taking punitive measures.Autocratic leader Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won 120 of 125 available seats in Sunday’s elections, according to preliminary results.The 70-year-old, who has been in power for 38 years, has said he plans to hand the prime minister’s job off to his oldest son, 45-year-old Hun Manet, who is Cambodia’s army chief and won his first parliamentary seat Sunday.It is part of what is expected to be a broad generational change in top positions for the CPP. And while it is not yet clear exactly when Hun Manet might take over, Hun Sen has suggested it could be as early as within the next month.On his Facebook page Monday, Hun Manet sa...

Nigerian officials say 103 bodies from 2020 protests will be buried. Activists allege a cover-up

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — More than 100 people who died in Nigeria in 2020 during protests against police brutality will soon be buried, authorities said, prompting allegations by activists on Monday of a cover-up and calls for a new investigation.At least 103 bodies were gathered from across the state after the protests and other clashes related to it, the top official at Lagos State’s ministry of health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, said in a statement after local media reported a leaked memo about the planned burial.Ogboye said the fatalities occurred during violence in many parts of the state and not at a protest site at the Lekki toll gate, where soldiers allegedly shot protesters.The new information about the deaths shows authorities in the West African nation are still covering up the true casualty toll from the protest and are still protecting security personnel who killed protesters, Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said as it demanded a new probe into the killings.“M...

MN urges Medical Assistance recipients to complete eligibility check

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

State officials are encouraging Minnesotans whose Medical Assistance health care coverage is up for renewal to get their forms submitted as a July 31 deadline approaches.States are in the midst of the first nationwide eligibility check since the COVID-19 pandemic grew Medicaid rolls by about 20 million. Minnesota calls its Medicaid program Medical Assistance.To prevent Minnesotans from losing their health insurance, the state Department of Human Services and its local partners already have mailed nearly 300,000 renewal notices and sent 92,000 reminders by text message.“We want everyone who’s eligible to keep their insurance,” Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead said in a statement.State officials say Medical Assistance recipients should submit their paperwork, even if it is late, to avoid losing coverage. Roughly 191,000 Minnesotans on Medical Assistance face the July 31 deadline.About a quarter of Minnesota residents are on either Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare, the sta...

GasBuddy: Avg. Albany prices up 2.3 cents in last week

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Average gasoline prices in Albany have risen 2.3 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.72/g on Monday, according to GasBuddy's survey of 546 stations in Albany. Prices in Albany are 0.4 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and stand 79.8 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average cost of diesel has risen 2.7 cents in the last week and stands at $3.83 per gallon. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Albany was priced at $3.39/g on Sunday, while the most expensive was $3.89/g, a difference of 50.0 cents per gallon. The lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.95/g, while the highest was $4.69/g, a difference of $1.74/g.The national average price of gasoline has risen 2.1 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.55/g Monday. The national average is down 0.4 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 78.0 cents pe...