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On Beijing visit, Russian prime minister says pressure from West is strengthening ties with China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Pressure from the West is strengthening Russia’s ties with China, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing Wednesday. Mishustin’s visit comes as Russia is increasingly turning to China for diplomatic and economic support amid growing isolation over its invasion of Ukraine. In opening remarks at his meeting Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Mishustin did not mention the 15-month-old war that China, in deference to Moscow, has refused to criticize, focusing instead on economic cooperation between the neighbors that have partnered in challenging the U.S. lead in global affairs. Relations between the two countries are “at an unprecedented high level,” influenced by the “increased turbulence in the international arena and the pattern of sensational pressure from the collective West,” Mishustin said. China says it is a neutral party between Russia and Ukraine and wants to help broker an end to the conflict. Bu...

Belarusian blogger arrested on Ryanair flight pardoned - state media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

Roman Protasevich (pictured) was pardoned by the Belarusian government news agency BelTA on Monday (22 May). He was arrested in 2021, after his Ryanair flight was forced to land at Minsk.Protasevich told reporters: "I literally signed all relevant documents that state that I've been pardoned," BelTA reported. "This is great news."Protasevich was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, for crimes including inciting terrorism and mass disturbances. He also slandered Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.He was a journalist for the news outlet Nexta. Nexta reported extensively on the mass protests that took place against Lukashenko after the presidential election in 2020, which the opposition and Western governments deemed to be rigged.All significant opposition figures were jailed or forced into exile during the clampdown that took place around the time of elections.Stsiapan Rudik, the former editor of Nexta and Stsiapan putsila, its founder, were both sentenced to jail in absentia...

Detached house in San Jose sells for $1.5 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

5706 Holland Lane – Google Street ViewA 1,385-square-foot house built in 1960 has changed hands. The property located in the 5700 block of Holland Lane in San Jose was sold on May 3, 2023, for $1,520,000, or $1,097 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage, and two parking spaces. The backyard also has a pool. The unit sits on a 6,000-square-foot lot.Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:In October 2022, a 2,302-square-foot home on Weathersfield Way in San Jose sold for $1,900,000, a price per square foot of $825. The home has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.A 1,574-square-foot home on the 5700 block of Tubac Lane in San Jose sold in March 2023, for $1,625,000, a price per square foot of $1,032. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.On Chambertin Drive, San Jose, in October 2022, a 1,573-square-foot home was sold for $1,648,000, a price per square foot of $1,048. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

Three-night docuseries ‘FDR’ premieres Memorial Day on History Channel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.” toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews 'FDR' with Doris Kearns Goodwin (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); Last Memorial Day, Doris Kearns Goodwin executive produced the History Channel docuseries “Teddy Roosevelt.”This Memorial Day, she tackles another Roosevelt with “FDR,” premiering Monday on the History Channel....

UK inflation falls to lowest level in over a year but food prices keep decline in check

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the U.K. has fallen to its lowest level since the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though elevated food prices meant it didn’t fall as much as anticipated. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that the inflation rate, as measured by the consumer prices index, dropped to 8.7% in the year to April from 10.1% in March, largely because last year’s energy spike in the wake of the invasion dropped out of the annual comparison. The fall took inflation to its lowest level since March 2022, a month after the war began.Though welcome, the decline wasn’t as big as anticipated, especially as prices in the wholesale gas market have been falling for months. The consensus in financial markets was that it would ease back further to 8.3%,One of the main reasons why inflation is consistently running higher than anticipated — and generally higher than other nations in the Group of Seven — is that food prices remain ele...

Hankinson: ‘Vetting’ of migrants shouldn’t make you feel safe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

Amid all the confusion at our border, at least one question with national security and public safety implications has gone almost entirely unexamined: We’re told that those who enter our country illegally are “vetted” before they’re released into our communities, but what does this mean?Not much.Since President Biden took office, the Department of Homeland Security has released an estimated 2 million migrants into the U.S. after minimal “processing.” This means taking their photos and fingerprints, entering (unverifiable) names and birth dates, running this data through U.S. law enforcement and immigration databases, and creating an immigration file if a prior one isn’t found.Some of those who are released get a “notice to appear” at a future immigration court hearing to argue why they shouldn’t be removed from the U.S. for being here illegally. But when overwhelmed, DHS has simply released them with a “notice to report” to their nearest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) off...

US aircraft carrier arrives in NATO-member Norway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived Wednesday in Oslo with the Norwegian armed forces saying it gives them “a unique opportunity to further develop cooperation and work more closely with our most important ally, the United States.”The nuclear-powered ship USS General Ford entered the Oslo fjord escorted by a rapid dinghy-type boat with armed people on board. The Norwegian armed forces has said any boats must stay a half-kilometer (half-mile) away from the aircraft carrier and a no-fly zone was created over the area where the aircraft carrier was.Described as the largest aircraft carrier in the world, the vessel’s first foreign call was broadcast live on Norwegian public television. Onlookser, some using binoculars, were seen on land watching as the large aircraft carrier glided deeper and deeper into the fjord and eventually reach the city of Oslo.The vessel will stay in the Norwegian capital until Tuesday. After that, it will take part in drills with th...

Red Sea corals threatened by mass sea urchin die-off, Israeli researchers say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Sea urchins in Israel’s Gulf of Eilat have been dying off at an alarming rate, researchers announced Wednesday — a development that threatens the Red Sea’s prized coral reef ecosystems. According to Tel Aviv University scientists, an unknown pathogen is killing off the black sea urchin, Diadema setosum. The massive die-off first began in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, from where it has spread to the neighboring Red Sea, the scientists said.The black sea urchin is critical to maintaining a healthy reef habitat. Without them, algae grow unchecked, choking off corals and compromising the delicate balance of the reef ecosystem. A paper outlining the findings was published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science. “It’s a fast and violent death: within just two days a healthy sea urchin becomes a skeleton with massive tissue loss,” said Oren Bronstein, a marine biologist at Tel Aviv University and lead author on a series of papers on the sea urchin death...

Sustainable till death do us part, and 45 days beyond; mushroom coffin a last best wish for some

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

DELFT, Netherlands (AP) — For those seeking to live in the most sustainable way, there now is an afterlife too.A Dutch intrepid inventor is now “growing” coffins by putting mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, together with hemp fiber in a special mold that, in a week, turns into what could basically be compared to the looks of an unpainted Egyptian sarcophagus. And while traditional wooden coffins come from trees that can take decades to grow and years to break down in the soil, the mushroom versions biodegrades and delivers the remains to nature in barely a month and a half. In our 21st century, when the individual spirit can increasingly thrive way beyond the strictures of yore, death and funerals are all so often still hemmed in by tradition that may fall far short of the vision of the deceased or their loved ones. “We all have different cultures and different ways of wanting to be buried in the world. But I do think there’s a lot of us, a huge percentage of us, that would...

Russia says it shot down drones in border region after raid from Ukraine territory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:44 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces shot down “a large number” of drones in Russia’s southern Belgorod region, a local official said Wednesday, a day after Moscow announced that its forces crushed a cross-border raid in the area from Ukraine.The drones were intercepted overnight over the province, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a Telegram post. He said that no one had been hurt, but unspecified administrative buildings, residential buildings and cars were damaged.Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.Russia said the previous day that it beat back one of war’s most serious cross-border attacks, with the Defense Ministry saying that more than 70 attackers were killed in a battle in Belgorod that lasted around 24 hours. It made no mention of any Russian casualties.Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that local troops, airstrikes and artillery routed the attackers.Twelve local civilians were wounded in the attack, officials said, and an older woman...