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As world roils, US and China seek to ease strained ties and prepare for possible Biden-Xi summit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of two active and potentially world-changing conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, the U.S. is hoping to find at least a small measure of common ground with China as China’s top diplomat visits Washington this week.Over three days of meetings that begin Thursday, top Biden administration officials, including possibly the president himself, will press Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player.Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, are both expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars. Those meetings could set the stage for a summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders gathering in San Francisco.The U.S. has been disapp...

Trump isn’t accustomed to restrictions. That’s beginning to test the legal system

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump isn’t used to constraints.The former president ignores and antagonizes anyone who tells him no. He built a business — and later political — brand as someone who says and does what he wants, largely without consequence. Even after losing the White House, Trump remains accustomed to deference, surrounded by people who greet him with nightly standing ovations at his clubs and cheer his most outrageous lies.But Trump came face-to-face with a new reality Wednesday when he was called to the witness stand and fined $10,000 for violating a gag order prohibiting him from attacking court personnel in his New York civil fraud case. Trump denied he was referring to a senior law clerk when he told reporters in the courthouse hallway that someone “sitting alongside” Judge Arthur Engoron was “perhaps even much more partisan than he is.” Engoron wasn’t having it.“I find that the witness is not credible,” he concluded before issuing the fine. Minutes la...

Texas inmate faces execution for killing prisoner. The victim’s sister asks that his life be spared

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas inmate faces execution Thursday for killing another prisoner more than 26 years ago, but the victim’s sister and religious leaders have asked authorities to spare his life.William Speer, 49, is set to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for strangling to death Gary Dickerson in July 1997 at the Telford state prison, located near New Boston in northeast Texas.“I am so aware of the things that I’ve done. I’m so aware of the pain and the hurt that I’ve caused. I could just say that I’m sorry,” Speer said in a video submitted as part of his clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.Speer’s lawyers say he has transformed while in prison, expressed regret for his actions and now helps lead a religious program that ministers to other death row inmates.His attorneys have asked state and federal courts to halt the execution. One request for a stay focuses on allegations that prosecutors at his 2001 tria...

Fresh off a hearty Putin handshake, Orban heads into an EU summit on Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Not so long ago, a European Union leader could heartily call Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a “dictator” in public and it’d be chuckles all around.Already the recalcitrant EU outsider in 2015, Orban got a ribbing from EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, not only for running a self-professed “illiberal democracy” but also for setting the tone at EU summits where the need for unanimity gives any single leader massive power on a slew of issues.There are very few laughs now. Orban’s handshake last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, just about the EU’s public enemy No. 1 after invading Ukraine, made sure of that.And as the 27 EU leaders meet for their traditional fall summit in Brussels on Thursday, the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will join by video link, will only increase the focus on Orban.With unity supposedly the EU’s watchword on Ukraine, no picture could have better belied 1,000 diplomatic words. “Som...

An increase in harassment against Jewish and Muslim Americans has been reported since Hamas attacks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

Muslim and Jewish civil rights groups say they’ve seen large increases in reports of harassment, bias and sometimes physical assaults against members of their communities since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.The Anti-Defamation League and the Center on American-Islamic Relations saw increases in reported instances, many involving violence or threats against protesters at rallies in support of Israel or in support of Palestinians over the last two weeks as war broke out between Israel and Hamas. Other attacks and harassment reported by the groups were directed at random Muslim or Jewish people in public.A spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Wednesday that the organization’s chapters and national office had received 774 reports of bias-related acts between Oct. 7 and Oct. 24. The national headquarters had 110 direct reports during that period, compared to 63 for all of August. The council’s leaders believe it’s the largest wave of complaints sin...

Israel-Hamas war could threaten already fragile economies in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Economic crises are rippling through the countries bordering Israel, raising the possibility of a chain reaction from the war with Hamas that further worsens the financial health and political stability of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and creates problems well beyond.Each of the three countries is up against differing economic pressures that led the International Monetary Fund to warn in a September report that they could lose their “sociopolitical stability.” That warning came shortly before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering a war that could easily cause economic chaos that President Joe Biden and the European Union would likely need to address.The possible fallout is now starting to be recognized by world leaders and policy analysts. For a Biden administration committed to stopping the Israel-Hamas war from widening, the conflict could amplify the economic strains and possibly cause governments to collapse. If the chaos went unchecked, it could...

Democrats’ divisions on Israel-Hamas war boil over in Michigan as Detroit-area Muslims feel betrayed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP) — Many of Michigan’s top Democrats, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, took part in a huge pro-Israel rally at a suburban Detroit synagogue days after Hamas’ deadly attack on the country earlier this month, with some of them dancing and joining in chants of “Am Yisrael Chai” — Hebrew for “The people of Israel live.”None of them attended a rally in nearby Dearborn the next day to show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who were being killed or forced from their homes by the Israeli military’s response.The war between Israel and Hamas has inflamed tensions between Jews and Muslims around the world, including the Detroit area, which is home to several heavily Jewish suburbs and Dearborn, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. The strong show of support for Israel by Michigan’s leading Democrats, though, has offended many of their Muslim supporters and could affect how this key bloc votes next fall in t...

In political battleground of Georgia, a trial is set to determine legitimacy of voting challenge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — On the eve of a critical 2021 election for U.S. Senate in Georgia, a conservative voting organization announced it was challenging the eligibility of more than 360,000 state voters.Texas-based True the Vote said it had good reason to believe the voters had moved out of their districts and were ineligible to cast a ballot there. But a group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams argued in a 2020 lawsuit that the mass challenge violated federal law because it intimidated voters.Nearly three years later, the two sides are headed to trial in Georgia over those claims. Starting Thursday, U.S. Judge Steve Jones in Gainesville will hear arguments and testimony to determine whether True the Vote’s actions violated a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. A ruling against True the Vote could deter similar mass challenges in Georgia and other states, attorneys for plaintiff Fair Fight say. They are specifically asking Jones to bar True the Vot...

Business owners in a Ukrainian front-line city adapt even as ‘a missile can come at any moment’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — In a city where damaged buildings are everywhere, a destroyed pizzeria stands out as a painful reminder of lives and livelihoods dashed in an instant.A Russian ballistic missile struck the popular eatery in eastern Ukraine in June, killing 13 people including an award-winning Ukrainian writer and several teenagers. Seven of the victims were staff.Today, fresh flowers and notes have been placed where the entrance once was. A T-shirt, part of the waitstaff’s uniform, hangs near the makeshift memorial with the inscription “We will never forget.”“As an entrepreneur, of course, I regret the loss of property, but there’s something that cannot be returned: human lives,” said Dmytro Ihnatenko, the owner of RIA Pizza.The bombed-out building in Kramatorsk underscores the massive risks for businesses in this front-line city in the Donetsk region. But that has not deterred many other business owners who have reopened their doors to customers in the past year.The city ...

Mike Johnson is the new House speaker, but the ally of Donald Trump faces same GOP challenges ahead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Mike Johnson is the new speaker of the House, but the ally of Donald Trump inherits many of the same political problems that have tormented past GOP leaders, tested their grasp of the gavel and eventually chased them out of office.When the House convenes Thursday it will be a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. But the goodwill toward Johnson blurs the political fault lines challenging the Louisianan’s ability to lead the GOP majority as it faces daunting issues ahead. By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. President Joe Biden wants an additional $105 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son’s business dealings.“This has been a grueling process,” Johnson said Wednesday after he took the gavel. “The challenge before ...