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Iran’s president says US should ease sanctions to demonstrate it wants to return to nuclear deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday that relations with the United States can move forward if the Biden administration demonstrates it wants to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, and a first step should be easing sanctions.He told a news conference that the Americans have reached out through several channels “saying they wish to have a dialogue, but we do believe that it must be accompanied by action.”“So talk alone is not going to do it,” Raisi said. But action on sanctions can be “a solid foundation for continuing” discussions.The Iranian leader added: “We have not left the table of negotiations.”Raisi reiterated that the American withdrawal from the 2015 agreement, aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear program, trampled on U.S. commitments including on sanctions.Then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the accord in 2018, restoring crippling sanctions. Iran began breaking the terms a year later, including by enriching uranium to h...

Inside a Ukrainian brigade’s battle ‘through hell’ to reclaim a village on the way to Bakhmut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

ANDRIIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian bullet struck the sergeant just above the left ear. The leader of the Ukrainian platoon was down. Headquarters radioed a battlefield promotion to the private who had called him “brother” — a man known as Courier.Courier knew the platoon’s orders were to move forward through the forest, on the road to Bakhmut. He hesitated for 30 seconds near his mortally wounded commander. Maybe a minute. Then he decided: There would be no turning back. “Forward!” he howled.He fired toward a trench just ahead until he was sure the Russians inside would never shoot again. Then the men stumbled through the charred spindles of trees toward the village of Andriivka — the objective of the 3rd Assault Brigade since the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive this summer, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the city of Bakhmut.The sergeant, Gagarin, and other injured soldiers could only be evacuated after dark, because the Russians were also hunting downed Ukraini...

Italian rockers Måneskin continue to revive the genre, selling out Madison Square Garden

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Huddled together on a snakeskin couch in a New York hotel, their euphoria was infectious.Måneskin just played a pop-up lunchtime show in Times Square, and now they learned their Madison Square Garden show scheduled for later in the week was a sellout.Pleasantly surprised, frontman Damiano David called the news “very special.”“It’s one of the most important places where you can ever dream to play,” David said.That show Thursday night will kick off the North American leg of their Rush! World Tour that began earlier this year.In an era where rock bands seem endangered and most of the top acts in the genre came from the last millennium, Måneskin has become something of an anomaly.Coming to prominence in 2021 after an unexpected win at the Eurovision Song Contest with their high-energy rocker, “Zitti E Buoni,” the Italian quartet seems to be reviving rock music, or at least, providing a breath of hope.Bass player Victoria De Angelis says it was never intentional.Instead, ...

LittleOak Infant, Follow-on Formula recalled for not being evaluated by Health Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for two varieties of LittleOak brand infant formula because they have not been approved by Health Canada.The LittleOak Infant Formula made with Natural Goat Milk and the LittleOak Follow-on Formula made with Natural Goat Milk were both sold online in 800g and 150g packages.The CFIA says the company has not submitted the required pre-market submission, and the products have not been evaluated to determine whether they meet Canadian food safety and nutritional standards and regulations. The agency says the products also do not meet Canadian labelling and composition requirements. The CFIA says it issued the warning following a recall of the products in another country.There have been no reports of any illnesses linked to the products.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2023.The Canadian Press

Alex Murdaugh plans to do something he hasn’t yet done in court – plead guilty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh is expected to step before a judge Thursday and do something he hasn’t done in the two years since his life of privilege and power started to unravel: plead guilty to a crime.Murdaugh will admit in federal court that he committed 22 counts of financial fraud and money laundering, his attorneys said in court papers filed this week.Murdaugh, 55, is serving life without parole in a South Carolina prison for shooting his wife and son. He has denied any role in the killings since their deaths in June 2021 and insisted he was innocent in two days of testimony this year before he was convicted of two counts of murder.The federal guilty plea likely locks in years if not decades in prison for the disbarred lawyer, even if his murder conviction and sentence in state court is overturned on appeal.The deal for pleading guilty in federal court is straightforward. Prosecutors will ask that any federal sentence Murdaugh gets will run at the same time as any p...

Stock market today: Asian shares track Wall Street’s slump after Fed says rates may stay high in ’24

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

NEW YORK — Asian shares are lower, tracking a slump on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve said it may not cut interest rates next year by as much as it earlier thought. Most regional markets fell more than 1%. U.S. futures and oil prices also declined. U.S. stocks slumped Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it may not cut interest rates next year by as much as it earlier thought, regardless of how much Wall Street wants it. The Fed held its main interest rate steady at its highest level in more than two decades, as was expected. Officials also indicated they may raise the federal funds rate once more this year, as they try to get inflation down to a 2% target. The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, said it’s close to hitting the peak on rates, if not there already.“Moving forward, traders will scrutinize every piece of data from the US, with a particular emphasis on inflationary indicators, to gauge the potential for prolonged high rates,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said i...

Census shows 3.5 million Middle Eastern residents in US, Venezuelans fastest growing Hispanic group

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

The United States had 3.5 million residents who identify as Middle Eastern or North African, Venezuelans were the fastest-growing Hispanic group last decade and Chinese and Asian Indians were the two largest Asian groups, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.The most detailed race and ethnicity data to date from the 2020 census was released Thursday more than three years after the once-a-decade head count, which determines political power, the distribution of $2.8 trillion in annual federal funding and holds up a mirror to how the U.S. has changed in a decade. The delay was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of a new method to protect the confidentiality of participants.The Census Bureau says the 2020 census provided more details on the nation’s racial and ethnic groups than ever before, offering counts for about 1,550 racial, ethnic and tribal groups, although some tables aren’t available at smaller geographies for some groups because of the new confi...

Republican David McCormick is expected to announce he’s entering Pennsylvania’s US Senate race

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican David McCormick is expected to announce Thursday that he will enter Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race and make his second bid for the office, this time to take on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey after losing in last year’s crowded Republican primary.McCormick’s aides have sent invites to a “special announcement” by McCormick at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh at 5 p.m. ET.The Associated Press previously has reported on McCormick’s plans, citing three people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss his intentions.The Senate candidates in Pennsylvania will share a ticket with candidates for president next year in a state that is critical to whether Democrats can maintain control of the White House and the Senate.A race between Casey and McCormick could be one of the nation’s most expensive and closely watched in a year when Democrats have a difficult 2024 Senate map that requires them to defend incumbents in red states — Montana...

Guatemalans rally on behalf of president-elect, demonstrating a will to defend democracy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Protests by thousands of Guatemalans this week supporting President-elect Bernardo Arévalo suggest that the efforts by some officials to derail his presidency have awakened a new will among many citizens to defend democracy.Public displays rejecting machinations by the attorney general’s office had been modest in the month since Arévalo’s resounding victory. But on Monday, thousands marched peacefully through the capital’s streets and on Tuesday protesters blocked major highways across the country.Historically, Guatemala has scored among the lowest in Latin American countries in its support for democracy, according to the AmericasBarometer survey, which has been measuring attitudes there for three decades. Over the past 15 years, measured support for democracy as the best form of government reached as high as 62.9% in 2014 and as low as 48.4% in 2017. Even as recently as the weeks before this year’s election, only 48% of those surveyed said democracy was ...

Wave of migrants that halted trains in Mexico started with migrant smuggling industry in Darien Gap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:11 GMT

HUEHUETOCA, Mexico (AP) — Thousands of migrants riding atop railway cars in Mexico this week or waiting in mile-long lines by the tracks to hitch a ride to the U.S. have triggered the closure of one U.S. border crossing and forced Mexico’s largest railroad to suspend dozens of freight trains.But the upsurge has also revealed a much larger phenomenon — an almost unbroken chain of migrants being shuffled from Colombia through the Darien Gap jungle into Panama on an industrial scale that could approach 500,000 this year.Those migrants are then moving steadily without interruption up through Central America into Mexico and on to the U.S. border.“Behind us, there are thousands more. It’s continuous,” Juan Carlos Leal, a Venezuelan migrant who was waiting Wednesday with his 5-year-old son beside railroad tracks about 35 miles north of Mexico City.He and other migrants waiting to hop passing trains — some while still running — in the Mexican town of Huehuetoca said 3,500 migrants are...