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Tropical Storm Cindy forms behind Bret in an early and aggressive start to Atlantic hurricane season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Cindy has formed behind Tropical Storm Bret, in the first case of two storms in the tropical Atlantic in June since record keeping began, forecasters said Friday.The historic event signals an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1 and whose peak usually runs from mid-August to mid-October. Forecasters blamed unusually high sea temperatures for the rare development.Cindy is expected to remain a tropical storm as it heads northeast into open waters.Meanwhile, Bret brought winds, heavy rain and swells of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) early Friday to islands in the eastern Caribbean that shut down to prepare for potential landslides and flooding. Officials in the French Caribbean island of Martinique said they were searching for four people who apparently were aboard a lifeboat after their catamaran sank during the storm.Power outages were reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with at least 130 people ...

Worker dead after explosion at North Carolina plant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

WADESBORO, N.C. (AP) — One worker is dead after an explosion at a North Carolina plant, according to a county official.Firefighters called to the Darling Ingredients rendering plant in the Wadesboro area around 9 p.m. Thursday found a plume of smoke, Anson County Emergency Services Chief Rodney Diggs said.After air monitoring determined that there wasn’t a threat, one employee was found dead, Diggs said. The explosion involved aluminum chloride and an investigation into the blast is ongoing, he said.There’s no threat to the community, Diggs said.The explosion was at an ancillary building at the site, Darling Ingredients spokesperson Suann Guthrie said, and the rendering plant, where otherwise unusable parts of slaughtered animals are turned into usable products, has been shut down during the investigation, Darling Ingredients spokesperson Suann Guthrie said.“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our employee,” Guthrie said.The Associated Press

Stock market today: Wall Street points lower in premarket as rate hike anxiety carries over

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

BANGKOK — Markets on Wall Street pointed lower early Friday as anxiety carried over from a day earlier when a handful of central banks around the world cranked interest rates higher in their fight against inflation.Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 0.6% and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%. Barring a turnaround, the benchmark S&P 500 is poised for its first losing week in the past six.Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week has reiterated his belief that inflation is still too high and that further increases to rates may be necessary. Powell testified before a Senate committee Thursday, a day after appearing before a House of Representatives committee.The Fed held interest rates steady at its last meeting after raising rates aggressively throughout 2022 and into 2023 to tame painfully high inflation. Inflation has cooled somewhat since last summer, but the Fed has signaled it may raise rates two more times this year as it tries to push inflation dow...

Paris climate summit ends without a deal on global tax on shipping

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Participants at the Paris summit on finance and climate stopped short of a deal to create a tax on greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping.The two-day gathering of world leaders and finance bosses, aimed at tackling climate change and poverty, ended without a major announcement Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the summit, said upcoming reforms of the international finance system would be assessed within the next two years. The idea of a global tax on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping has been gaining traction and could potentially be adopted at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations’ agency regulating shipping.Some experts believe that a tax on shipping alone could raise $100 billion a year, and a strong endorsement of it in Paris would have provided Macron with a symbolic win.“This is tax-free sector. And there’s no reason why it’s not taxed,” Macron said.Bu...

Infighting among Putin’s lieutenants hurts Russia’s war footing, if not his hold on power

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

The video was shocking — not just for what it showed but also for what was said.Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, stood in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops in Ukraine and yelled expletive-riddled insults at Russian military leaders, blaming them for the carnage.“They came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your red wood offices,” Prigozhin shouted. “You are sitting in your expensive clubs, your children are enjoying good living and filming videos on YouTube. Those who don’t give us ammunition will be eaten alive in hell!”It was a disquieting display for Russians used to more than two decades of rigidly controlled rule by President Vladimir Putin — years with little sign of infighting among his top lieutenants.Prigozhin’s video in May and his other rants against the military leadership have been met with silence from Putin, as well as the brass. Some see Putin’s failure to squelc...

Ohio father accused of killing his 3 young sons indicted on murder charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) — A grand jury has indicted an Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his three young sons on murder charges.Chad Doerman, 32, was indicted Thursday on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and felonious assault for the June 15 deaths of his sons, according to Clermont County court records.Clermont County’s chief prosecutor of Municipal Court, David Gast, said during Doerman’s arraignment June 16 that Doerman lined his sons up and executed them with a rifle. At one point, one of the boys tried to flee into a nearby field but Doerman “hunted” his son down and brought him back to their home before killing him.Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3 all died at the scene despite the efforts of Clermont County Sheriff’s Office deputies to revive them.“This was the man that everyday they woke up looking to for protection, love and guidance in all things, …” Gast said at the arraignment. “He was their world, he was their guardian and he ...

Granddaughter calls her picture book a ‘love letter’ to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The 15-year-old granddaughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is collaborating on a picture book tribute to the late civil rights leader and his wife, Coretta Scott King. Yolanda Renee King’s “We Dream a World,” with illustrations by award-winning artist Nicole Tadgell, will be published by Scholastic next Jan. 2.“I’m excited to share this love letter in his honor. This book lets every child rediscover my grandparents’ dream,” Yolanda Renee King, herself a social justice advocate, said in a statement Friday. The book’s release date is timed shortly before what would have been Martin Luther King’s 95th birthday. He was assassinated in 1968, 40 years before his granddaughter was born.Scholastic is describing the book as a “call for unity and equality.” The publisher says “the book’s narrative expresses Yolanda’s deep love for her grandparents, while also speaking to children everywhere about her hopes for a new future, as expressed through he...

Rights groups denounce Spain and Morocco’s lack of justice as Melilla tragedy anniversary nears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Rights groups on Friday denounced a lack of justice and transparency over the deaths of 37 migrants on June 24, 2022, during a mass attempt to cross the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave city of Melilla.Ahead of the tragedy’s anniversary, Amnesty International said the Spanish and Moroccan authorities were “preventing attempts to find the truth” of what happened when up to 2,000 African migrants tried to climb a border wall and dozens were crushed, beaten and denied medical attention by security forces at the “Barrio Chino” border crossing.Spain’s interior minister has repeatedly rejected that any deaths occurred on Spanish soil.The independent Spanish Commission for Refugees, also known by its Spanish acronym CEAR, ordered authorities to clarify what happened that day for “truth, justice and reparations,” and demanded the launch of an independent investigation after prosecutors shelved the only state probe into the deaths in December.“This...

Israel arrests 3 settlers suspected in violent attacks in Palestinian towns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s security agency said Friday it had detained three Israeli settlers on suspicion of involvement in mass rampages through Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank this week following the killing of four Israelis.While rights groups welcomed the arrests, the small number of suspects given the scale of the attacks have revived criticism of the wider lack of accountability for Israeli settlers. The arrests fueled concerns that the Israeli military is not doing enough to stop and prevent settler attacks.“We didn’t expect much,” said Roy Yellin, of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. “The rule is impunity from justice.”Israel’s Shin Bet security agency did not identify the three Israelis detained or offer further details, saying only they were suspected of participating in “violent incidents.”Over the past three days, Jewish settlers have torched and vandalized dozens of Palestinian homes and cars throughout the occupied West Bank. Their ferocity echoed a deadly...

Cyprus court orders that 2 Syrians remain in custody after 45 migrants were rescued at sea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:23 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A court in Cyprus on Friday ordered that two Syrian men remain in police custody for seven days on suspicion of people smuggling after authorities rescued a total 45 Syrian migrants aboard two rickety vessels off the island nation’s southern coast.The decision came after the court heard that the two Syrians — aged 18 and 20, respectively — were the captains of the vessels sailing separately southeast of the island. One vessel was a wooden boat “in bad shape” while the other was an inflatable craft from which passengers had signaled that they were in distress.A police helicopter located the vessels on Thursday, about 46 kilometers (16 miles) and 65 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the island. All migrants, including four women and 15 minors — five of them unescorted — were brought ashore aboard police patrol boats and transferred to a migrant reception center. A merchant ship near the inflatable craft assisted in the rescue.Police said the migrants said they ...