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Top White House official meets key Beijing diplomat amid signs of easing US-China tensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi held talks in Vienna this week, the latest in a series of small signs that tensions could be easing between the world’s two biggest economies.The meeting was not publicized by Washington or Beijing ahead of the high-level talks that took place on Wednesday and Thursday. The White House described the discussions as “candid” and “constructive.”As the political and military rivalry between China and the U.S. intensifies, American officials and analysts are worried that a lack of reliable crisis communications could cause a minor confrontation to spiral into greater hostilities. They cite the ability to communicate with the former Soviet Union as allowing the Cold War to end without a nuclear exchange.Sullivan and Wang discussed “key issues” in the U.S.-China relationship, Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan, and more, according to the White House ...

Bill to outlaw discrimination based on caste clears California Senate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

The California Senate voted 34-1 Thursday in favor of legislation outlawing caste discrimination in the state. If it passes in the state Assembly and is enacted, California could become the first state in the nation to make caste bias illegal by adding it as a protected category in the state’s anti-discrimination laws.State Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the legislature, introduced the bill in March. Caste is a division of people related to birth or descent and those at the lowest strata of the caste system known as Dalits, have been pushing for legal protections in California and beyond. They say it is necessary to protect them from bias in housing, education and in the tech sector — where they hold key roles. Thursday’s vote was swift, with only Sen. Brian Jones voting against the legislation, which has been controversial. On April 25, hundreds on both sides of the issue came to voice their opinions during a Senate Judiciar...

Russian woman who left note on grave of Putin’s parents convicted amid dissent crackdown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

A Russian court gave a two-year suspended sentence Thursday to a St. Petersburg woman who left a note on the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s parents that said they had “raised a freak and a killer.” The court found Irina Tsybaneva, 60, guilty of desecrating burial places motivated by political hatred. Her lawyer said she didn’t plead guilty because she hadn’t desecrated the grave physically or sought publicity for her action.The note that Tsybaneva placed on the guarded grave on the eve of Putin’s birthday in October read: “Parents of a maniac, take him to your place. He causes so much pain and trouble. The whole world prays for his death. Death to Putin. You raised a freak and a killer.”Since Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the government has waged a crackdown on dissent unseen since the Soviet era. In another case, a Russian government agency added actor Artur Smolyaninov and a former consultant who advised the Ukrainian president’s office to...

Coast Guard suspends search for 3 people reported aboard downed plane off San Diego

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Rescues crews have suspended their search for three people who were aboard a Learjet that plunged into the Pacific Ocean about a mile from a Navy-owned island off the coast of San Diego, U.S. officials said Thursday.The U.S. Coast Guard said its crews along with U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Customs and Border Protection all searched a combined 334 square miles (865 square kilometers) in the vicinity Wednesday after the Phoenix Air Learjet went down that morning off San Clemente Island.The aircraft was used by a Navy contractor who departed from the Ventura County area, said Drew Verbis, spokesperson for Naval Base Ventura County on the coast northwest of Los Angeles.He had no other immediate details, and identities of those aboard have not been released.The Associated Press

Migrants crossing dense Darien jungle at Colombia-Panama border find increasingly organized route

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

ACANDI, Colombia (AP) — Migrants who have hiked into the dense Darien jungle covering the Colombia-Panama border while the U.S. government moved to lift pandemic-related asylum restrictions have found an increasingly organized migration route.The majority who spoke with The Associated Press had not heard anything about the policy change, and the few who did had a very limited understanding.The Darien Gap is the most imposing physical barrier for migrants heading north until they reach the U.S. border. They must hike over steep mountains, endure torrential rain and ford swift running rivers. They are easy prey for bandits who rob and rape.But on the Colombian side of the border, locals have become increasingly organized in recent years as it became a major migration route.Migrants begin their crossing in Acandi, Colombia, where there is now a camp at the edge of the jungle. This week, hundreds of migrants, many carrying young children, waited there for their turn to start the walk, p...

House Republicans set to pass new asylum restrictions as Title 42 ends; Biden promises veto

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans were on track Thursday to pass a sweeping bill to build more U.S.-Mexico border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers, creating a hard-line counter to President Joe Biden’s policies just as migrants are amassing along the border with the end of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law. Democrats, who have a narrow hold on the Senate, have decried the aggressive measures in the bill as “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and Biden has already promised he would veto it.But the House GOP pointedly scheduled the vote for the same day as the expiration of Title 42, a public health emergency rule that allowed border authorities to quickly return many migrants who crossed the border illegally. Biden has conceded that the southern border will be “chaotic for a while” as migrants weigh whether to cross and U.S. officials use a new set of policies that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration whil...

‘Money, power, sex:’ Idaho prosecutors asks jury to convict slain kids’ mom in alleged doomsday plot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho prosecutors have spent the last four weeks painstakingly detailing their case against a woman accused of killing her two youngest children and a romantic rival in a bizarre doomsday-focused plot. On Thursday morning, Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood gave an impassioned speech to jurors, urging them to convict Lori Vallow Daybell for the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and her fifth husband’s previous wife Tammy Daybell. “Money, power and sex,” Wood told jurors, reprising the opening arguments they heard last month. “Beginning in October of 2018, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell set in motion a series of events that led to three horrific murders in the state of Idaho.” Vallow Daybell wanted to be “unencumbered by obstacles,” Wood said, so that she could have what she truly desired: money, power and sex. “The plan that she set in motion must end today in the verdicts you render in this trial,” Wood said. Both defendants ha...

With Missouri ban on gender-affirming care likely, Kansas City Council to vote on sanctuary status

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Officials in Missouri’s largest city could vote Thursday on a resolution to declare it a sanctuary for people seeking or providing gender-affirming care, defying state lawmakers who voted a day earlier to ban such care for minors and restrict it for some adults.GOP Gov. Mike Parson is expected to sign the measure into law, joining at least 16 other states that have enacted similar laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors. Kansas City’s proposal is coming from a Democratic-leaning city in a state with a Republican governor and GOP-controlled Legislature. Similar action has been taken in places like Austin, Texas. The resolution also comes as a judge considers a proposed emergency rule from Republican state Attorney General Andrew Bailey that would require adults and children to undergo more than a year of therapy — and fulfill other requirements before they could receive gender-affirming treatment.A committee signed off Wednesday on t...

RioCan REIT saw strong Q1 retail occupancy levels, rent rates ticking up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

TORONTO — The chief executive of one of the country’s most prominent commercial landlords says retail occupancy levels and rent rates are ticking up even as many storefronts across Canada sit empty.Jonathan Gitlin of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says retail committed occupancy across his company’s portfolio edged up to 98 per cent in the first quarter of the year from 97.4 per cent in the same period a year ago.Rent per square for new leasing during the period ended March 31 was $28.57, down from $31.40 a year ago, but up from $24.10 in the prior quarter.The first quarter’s rent per square foot was even higher than the average net rent per square foot of $21.13 that it saw across the rest of its portfolio, he added.“These exceptional occupancy levels…continue to be driven by intense demand for RioCan’s quality retail space, the sort of retail space that simply put is in a short supply,” Gitlin said on a Thursday call with analysts.His remar...

Insolvencies in Canada in March up 28.3% year-over-year, report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:16 GMT

OTTAWA — The total number of insolvencies in Canada in March was up 28.3 per cent compared with the same month last year as both consumer and business insolvencies climbed higher.The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy says there were 12,203 insolvencies in March, up from 9,513 in March 2022.The tally was also up 28.1 per cent from 9,526 in February this year.The increase came as Canadians have faced higher interest rates and inflation which have driven up the cost of living and stretched household budgets. The number of consumer insolvencies in March amounted to 11,768, up from 9,195 in March 2022 and 9,222 in February 2023.Meanwhile, there were 435 business insolvencies in March, up from 318 in the same month last year and 304 in February this year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2023.The Canadian Press