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US ambassador visits American imprisoned for espionage

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Russia met Wednesday with imprisoned American Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that both Washington and Whelan dispute.Ambassador Lynne Tracy traveled to the prison colony about 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Moscow where Whelan is held, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.“We believe Paul continues to show tremendous courage in the face of his wrongful detention. Ambassador Tracy reiterated to him that President Biden and Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken are committed to bringing him home,” he said. “Secretary Blinken had a call with Paul Whelan around a month ago, a little under a month ago, and delivered that same message to him: that we are working very hard to bring him home and we will continue to do so.”The 53-year-old Whelan, a corporate security director and former Marine, was detained in Moscow in 2018 and convicted in 2020. The Biden administration had hoped to ...

Argentina shuts down a publisher that sold books praising the Nazis. One person has been arrested

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s Federal Police shut down a publisher that sold books that praised Nazi ideology, seized hundreds of texts and arrested one person as part of what authorities characterized as a “historic seizure” of Nazi propaganda, officials said Wednesday.Law enforcement officers seized around 230 books during Tuesday’s raids in the town of San Isidro, north of Buenos Aires, in which officials said they seized the largest number of texts praising Nazi ideology in recent years.“We’re still astonished by the amount of material from what is truly a printing press for the dissemination and sale of Nazi symbolism, books and indoctrination,” Police Commissioner General Carlos Alejandro Ñamandú said. He went on to characterize it as a “historic seizure” of Nazi documents in Argentina.Ñamandú described the books as “high quality,” although videos of the raids released by authorities suggested a homegrown operation rather than a large printing press. Authori...

After catching escaped murderer, officers took a photo with him. Experts say that was inappropriate

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A group photo of about two dozen law officers in tactical gear posing with escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante minutes after his capture Wednesday in southeastern Pennsylvania drew criticism from policing reform advocates and some members of the public. The moment of the photo was captured by a KYW-TV television news helicopter. It showed the officers and federal agents gathered in a half circle around the handcuffed escapee for a photo before loading him into an armored vehicle. Policing experts said the celebratory moment after the grueling 14-day search for the armed suspect was inappropriate and dehumanizing. But at least one leader of the operation said he wasn’t bothered by it.When asked about the criticism at a news conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens focused on the officer’s hard work under trying circumstances.“They’re proud of their work,” Bivens said. “I’m not bothered at all by the fact that they took a ph...

Ox-pulled floats with sacred images of Mary draw thousands to Portugal’s wine-country procession

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

LAMEGO, Portugal (AP) — Galego and Cabano, two dark-haired oxen, pulled the sacred image of Our Lady of Remedies on a procession float for more than two hours through this small town in Portugal’s wine country.They remained unperturbed even when two cannons fired salutes at the procession’s end, but their owner, a local farmer, beamed with pride.“I love to work with animals, and I have a lot of faith in Nossa Senhora dos Remédios,” said Antonio Faustino, who guided the massive animals in the celebration of this particular image of the Virgin Mary, venerated here since the 1500s. “There is no word to explain the emotion.”Lamego’s festival, nicknamed “Portugal’s pilgrimage,” is one of the oldest and largest of the many religious feasts that throughout summer draw tens of thousands of people to hamlets and metropolises. They remain popular in this rapidly secularizing country, where the Catholic Church has been reckoning this year with a long-ignored clergy sexual abuse scandal that Po...

Pro-Bolsonaro rioters on trial for storming Brazil’s top government offices

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court justices on Wednesday began deciding whether to convict defendants accused of storming top government offices on Jan. 8 in an alleged bid to forcefully restore former President Jair Bolsonaro to office.Bolsonaro supporter Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, was first in line. In January, cameras at the Senate filmed him wearing a shirt calling for a military coup and recording a video of himself praising others who had also broken into the building. Almost 1,500 people were detained on the day of the riots, though most have been released.Pereira denied any wrongdoing and claimed he took part in a peaceful demonstration of unarmed people.Three other defendants also were standing trial Wednesday as part of the same case, but a final decision for each defendant could drag into coming days.The rioters refused to accept the right-wing leader’s defeat to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose inauguration took place one week before the uprising. ...

Movie Review: ‘A Million Miles Away’ charms and inspires with the tale of an unlikely astronaut

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

If ever there was an inspirational story about reaching for the stars, it’s “A Million Miles Away,” the real-life journey of a how a boy who grew up as a migrant farmworker became a NASA astronaut.It starts in the corn fields of Michoacan, Mexico, as José Hernández looks up into the sky in wonder, and it ends two hours later with him 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station.“Tell me something,” his cousin tells him. “Who better than a migrant? Somebody who knows what it’s like to dive into the unknown. Who better than that?” Biopics with outsized heroes can lay it on thick, but “A Million Miles Away” manages to keep its hero’s feet firmly on earth before his space shot, largely thanks to star Michael Peña as Hernández and Rosa Salazar as his wife. They keep their characters’ humanity even as the soundtrack and visuals blast off. He may be an astronaut, but someone still needs to take out the trash.Screenwriters Bettina Gilois, Hernán...

Arkansas lawmakers advance plan to shield Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ travel, security records

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers voted Wednesday to shield travel and security records for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ administration, a day after ditching a more far-reaching proposal that critics said would weaken government transparency.The bill approved by the majority-Republican Senate on a 29-2 vote would allow the state to wall off details about the security provided Sanders and other constitutional officers, including who travels on the State Police airplane and the cost of individual trips. The measure is expected to go before the House for a final vote Thursday. “This is a great starting place for making our government safer and more effective, and I look forward to its final passage,” Sanders posted on X, formerly Twitter.Sanders and Republican legislators on Tuesday backed off a broader plan that would have closed off access to other records, including any “reflecting communications” between the governor’s office and her cabinet secretaries....

California school district pays $27M to settle suit over death of teen assaulted by fellow students

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California school district has agreed to pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of an 8th grade boy who died after being assaulted by two other students at a middle school four years ago.The settlement with the Moreno Valley Unified School District was announced Wednesday by lawyers for relatives of 13-year-old Diego Stolz, who was was sucker-punched at Landmark Middle School in September 2019.One of the teens struck the teenager in the head from behind and he fell, hitting his head against a pillar. The teens then continued punching Stolz, who died nine days later from a brain injury. The attack was recorded on video.Dave Ring, an attorney for the Stolz family, said the boy’s death would have been preventable if there was an anti-bullying policy in place at the school about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. “Schools need to realize that bullying can never be tolerated and that any complaints of bullying and assau...

Supporters of effort to repeal ranked voting in Alaska violated rules, report finds

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Backers of an effort to repeal ranked voting in Alaska violated state campaign finance rules, including by channeling money through a church-affiliated organization in a way that initially concealed the source of the contributions, a new report alleges.The report, from the staff for the Alaska Public Offices Commission, recommends penalties of $22,500 for Art Mathias, a leader of the repeal effort, and around $20,000 for the church-affiliated Ranked Choice Education Association among its findings. The report alleges that Mathias, also president of the association, contributed money to the association knowing it “would be repurposed to support” the ballot group behind the repeal effort and that he gave $90,000 using the association as a “third party conduit.” Those contributing at least $500 to an initiative application group must report that no later than 30 days after making the contribution. Mathias contributed $90,000 in late December, and in a June filing t...

Vivek Ramaswamy proposes mass federal layoffs as more GOP hopefuls look to slash US government

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:42:24 GMT

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday laid out his ideas to shut down the FBI and fire more than 1 million federal workers, lining up with increasingly sweeping conservative proposals targeting the federal government and particularly law enforcement.Candidates trying to beat former President Donald Trump have responded to growing anger among GOP primary voters about the indictments against Trump as well as federal investigations and policies seen as unfairly targeting conservatives. Ramaswamy’s proposals are among the broadest in the field. Speaking at the America First Policy Institute in Washington, he said he would try to reduce the federal employee headcount by half in his first year in office and by 75% during his first term if he makes it to the White House.He wants to shut down five federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Education. He said he would also eliminate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,...