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Biden administration warns of major disruption at border if judges halt asylum rule

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

The Biden administration on Tuesday urged an appeals court to allow sweeping new asylum restrictions to stay in place, warning that halting them would be “highly disruptive” at the border.The government is urging a panel of judges in Pasadena, California — two appointed by President Bill Clinton and one by President Donald Trump — to overturn a July ruling that sought to block the new asylum restrictions. The new restrictions made it far more difficult to qualify for asylum if a migrant didn’t first apply online or traveled through another country, such as Mexico, and didn’t seek protection there. They have remained in place during the appeal.Although the judges didn’t rule immediately and gave no indication how they were leaning, the arguments occurred against a backdrop of Senate Republicans seeking to legislate far-reaching changes to asylum eligibility as part of President Joe Biden’s request for military aid to Ukraine and Israel.Courts blocked similar m...

More Bukele critics join effort seeking to nullify El Salvador leader’s candidacy for re-election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

SAN SALVADOR (AP) — As President Nayib Bukele seeks re-election, a growing number of voices are urging electoral authorities to reverse their acceptance of the popular leader’s candidacy, arguing it is a clear violation of El Salvador’s constitution.Bukele has gained the unwavering support of many in this Central American nation of 6.5 million people after his fierce crackdown on the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs halted what had been near constant terror in their day-to-day lives. But many experts and international watchdog groups say that security has come at the expense of human rights and say Bukele’s heavy-handed moves have slowly eaten away at the nation’s already delicate democracy. They are calling for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to annul Bukele’s candidacy in the February election, though the body already accepted him and have given no indication they might change course.Two lawyers, a citizen and another political party on Tuesday wer...

Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco still on track but no major breakthroughs expected

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on track for next week on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, but the White house is not expecting the face-to-face to result in major changes to the relationship between the two nations, according to a person familiar with the planning. The White House announced late last month that U.S. and China had come to an agreement in principle for Biden and Xi to speak to each other in person on the sidelines of the summit — the first engagement between the leaders in what’s been a tension-filled year between the world’s two biggest economic powers. But with Biden set to arrive in San Francisco in a week for the summit, exact timing and other logistical details have not yet been formally announced.The U.S. believes that the two sides will be able to made some modest announcements following their meeting, but the fundamental differences in...

Robbers break into home of Brazilian soccer star Neymar’s partner, she said on social media

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thieves entered the home of Brazilian soccer star Neymar ‘s partner and took her parents hostage early Tuesday morning, Bruna Biancardi, the mother of Neymar’s baby girl, wrote on her verified Instagram account.Local media reported that the home is located in Cotia, a city in Sao Paulo’s metropolitan area, and that one of the three armed robbers, a neighbor of Biancardi’s parents, has been apprehended.News outlet R7 reported that the trio had insistently asked after the whereabouts of Biancardi and her baby girl. Biancardi said on Instagram that she and her daughter had no longer been living at the house. Online news outlet G1 reported that Biancardi’s parents were bound and gagged, and that the assailants made off with luxury purses, watches and jewelry. Security camera footage revealed that the escape car was owned by a neighbor, who told authorities that he had loaned it to his son. The 20-year-old was soon found and confessed to the ...

California unveils Native American monument at Capitol, replacing missionary statue toppled in 2020

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An eight-foot-tall bronze statue of a late Native American leader known for preserving cultural dances now stands surrounded by trees in a historic park outside of California’s state Capitol building, replacing a statue of a Spanish missionary that protesters toppled it in 2020.California lawmakers, tribal leaders and hundreds of others on Tuesday celebrated the unveiling of a statue depicting Miwok leader William J. Franklin, Sr., in recognition of the Native American tribes whose ancestral lands are now the grounds of the state Capitol.“Finally, the California Indian people will have a monument here on the Capitol grounds for all those visiting to know that we are still here,” said Assemblymember James C. Ramos, the first Native American in the state Legislature. “We’re here because of the resiliency of our elders and ancestors.”It is one of several moves that California lawmakers have made in recent years to acknowledge the history of Native ...

2 demonstrators die in Panama during latest protests over Canadian company’s mining contract

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Two people died Tuesday while participating in a third week of protests against a controversial government mining contract in Panama, officials confirmed. One person was arrested in connection with the incident, Panama’s attorney general said on the social network X, formerly Twitter.Officials did not say how the demonstrators died while blocking a road in the east of the country, but local reports suggested they were shot by a driver attempting to get past the protest.A video circulating on social media appeared to show the alleged attacker carrying a gun and removing a tire from the road blockade, while a body lies on the road nearby.The deaths followed local reports that a demonstrator was run over and killed Nov. 1 by a foreigner attempting to cross a roadblock during a protest in the west of the country. The contract, given final approval Oct. 20, allows the local subsidiary of Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals to continue operating an open...

Cheetahs become more nocturnal on hot days. Climate change may up conflicts among Africa’s big cats.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, a new study finds.Unfortunately for endangered cheetahs, that sets them up for more potential conflicts with mostly nocturnal competing predators such as lions and leopards, say the authors of research published Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.“Changing temperatures can impact the behavior patterns of large carnivore species and also the dynamics among species,” said University of Washington biologist Briana Abrahms, a study co-author.While cheetahs only eat fresh meat, lions and leopards will sometimes opportunistically scavenge from smaller predators.“Lions and leopards normally kill prey themselves, but if they come across a cheetah’s kill, they will try to take it,” said Bettina Wachter, a behavioral biologist who leads the Cheetah Research Project at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. “The c...

Victim’s mother says drunk driving charge was wrongly dropped in fatal UBC crash case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

RICHMOND, B.C. — The mother of a young man killed by a speeding driver on the University of British Columbia campus says the criminal justice system “leaves victims in the dust,” after her son’s killer was sentenced to three years in jail on Tuesday. Debbie O’Day-Smith’s son Evan Smith and fellow University of B.C. student Emily Selwood were hit and killed by a vehicle driven by Tim Goerner on Sept. 26, 2021. Goerner was originally charged with impaired driving causing death, but those charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty last month to dangerous driving causing death.A two-day sentencing hearing in provincial court in Richmond, B.C., concluding Tuesday. A joint submission from the defence and Crown prosecutor said Goerner, 23, should serve three years in jail and be banned from driving for five years. Provincial court Judge Glenn Lee accepted the submission, ruling that the punishment was in line with similar cases in the past. He told the court t...

Peace Corps agrees to pay $750,000 to Chicagoland family of dead volunteer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

The Peace Corps has agreed to pay $750,000 to the family of a 24-year-old volunteer from Illinois who died in 2018 in East Africa after the agency’s doctors misdiagnosed a case of malaria, a law firm announced Tuesday.Bernice Heiderman of Inverness, Illinois, died in January 2018 on the island nation of Comoros after texting her mother that the local Peace Corps doctor wasn’t taking seriously her complaints of dizziness, nausea, fever and fatigue, said Adam Dinnell, a partner at the Houston-based law firm of Schiffer Hicks Johnson PLLC.The doctor told her to drink water and take aspirin, said Dinnell, whose firm filed a federal lawsuit for damages in Chicago on behalf of the Heiderman family. Senator proposes plan that lifts nuclear moratorium and requires new oversight rules in Illinois The woman’s mother, Julie Heiderman, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview the family feels that with the settlement, the Peace Corps has taken some accountability for her daughter's ...

Veteran's Voices: WWII pilot Ed McGuire's long journey home to Chicago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:28 GMT

CHICAGO — Eighty years after he left Chicago’s South Side to fight in World War II, Ed McGuire finally made it home.The journey stretched across three continents, eight decades, and a lifetime of questions for his relatives.  A HERO’S WELCOME, A SOLIDER’S SENDOFFOn Saturday, October 28, those distant relatives – joined by hundreds who lined the streets – gave McGuire a hero’s welcome and a soldier’s sendoff. “That sense of community is what makes this country great,” said Ned McAuliffe, one of McGuire’s grand nephews.Among the mourners was retired U.S. Army Colonel Wayne Kirkpatrick: “Citizens with their hands over their heart as the American flag and the hearse goes by,” said Kirkpatrick, who is the chairman of Rolling Thunder Illinois, which provided an escort for McGuire’s casket.At Most Holy Redeemer parish in Evergreen Park, family and community members gathered for a long-delayed funeral. None of those who attended the funeral ever met McGuire, but there is no doubt ...