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Russia slams critical port facilities in Odesa after Kremlin halts grain deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed intense drone and missile attacks overnight Wednesday, damaging critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, including grain and oil terminals, and wounding at least 12 people, officials said.The bombardment crippled significant parts of grain export facilities in Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk and destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry.It came days after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a wartime deal that enabled Ukraine’s exports to reach many countries facing the threat of hunger. It also followed a vow by Putin to retaliate against Kyiv for an attack Monday on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014.The Agriculture Ministry, citing experts, estimated it would take a year to restore the damaged facilities. The destroyed grain was supposed to have been loaded onto a v...

Microsoft and Activision extend deadline to close $69 billion deal under close regulatory scrutiny

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

The deadline for Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard has been extended as the companies seek to close a deal that has been challenged by regulators in the U.S., as well as by U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority. Microsoft believes that pushing back the deadline to Oct. 18 will provide enough time to work through the remaining regulatory issues, said Brad Smith, the company’s president. “We are confident about our prospects for getting this deal across the finish line,” Smith said. The extension comes with a bigger termination fee, should the deal be called off, and a number of other new agreements. Tuesday marked an important deadline for the deal announced 18 months earlier. Both Microsoft and Activision had agreed that either party could walk away from the planned merger if it hadn’t closed by then, triggering Microsoft to potentially have to pay a $3 billion breakup fee unless both sides decided to renegotiate.That ...

Stock market today: Wall Street opens higher, adding to recent gains

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street, adding to a run that has pulled the market to its highest level in more than 15 months. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% early Wednesday. The Dow added 168 points, or 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. Carvana soared 21% after the used-car dealer agreed with its lenders to reduce its debt by $1.2 billion. Elevance Health jumepd 7.5% after reporting stronger results than analysts expected. Stocks also got some help from easing pressure from the bond market, where yields fell after a report showed U.K. inflation slowed.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street shifted between small gains and losses Wednesday as earnings season kicks into high gear.Futures for the S&P 500 and for the Dow Jones Industrial Average each inched up less than 0.1% before the opening bell. Carvana shares jumped more than 24% in premarket trading after the online car dealer said it secured a deal to refinance its de...

Escalating violence in Congo displaces more people and demands urgent response, UN and aid group say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United Nations warned that violence in northeastern Congo has escalated significantly, with more than 40 civilians killed in three days.More than 600 people have been killed and 345,000 displaced in Ituri province so far this year, according to Stephane Dujarric, a United Nation’s spokesman. “We strongly condemn this violence and call on all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law and human rights responsibilities,” Dujarric said Tuesday.Conflict has simmered in eastern Congo for decades as more than 120 armed groups fight for control of valuable mineral resources and some to protect their communities. Mass killings by rebel groups are frequent, and the violence has triggered an exodus of refugees.The statement comes on the heels of two attacks in the country’s northeast that left nearly two dozen people dead.Such attacks often uproot entire communities, and many residents flee to nearby displacement sites which are ill-equipped to r...

The upper house of Russian parliament approves a ban on gender changes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The upper house of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill outlawing gender-affirming procedures, sending the measure to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law.The move extends the Kremlin’s drive to protect what it views as the country’s traditional values. The bill, which already was approved in the lower house, bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records.The only exception will be medical intervention to treat congenital anomalies.It also annuls marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and bars transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents.Lawmakers portray the measure as protecting Russia from “the Western anti-family ideology,” with some describing gender transitioning as “pure satanism.”Russia’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ people started a decade ago when Putin first proclaimed a focus on “traditional famil...

B.C. port strike: Feds hint at action after union rejects tentative deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

A day after the union representing port workers in B.C. rejected a tentative deal that ended job action last week, the federal labour minister is hinting at action to get goods moving again.In a statement Tuesday night, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the government and Canadians “have been patient,” adding, “We have respected the collective bargaining process. But we need our ports operating.”“Today, we received formal notice from the BCMEA (BC Maritime Employers Association) that their membership had accepted this deal in full. However, we were also informed that, despite initially agreeing to recommend the Terms of Settlement, the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) Canada’s leadership had decided not to recommend ratification of the terms to their members,” the statement issued by O’Regan.“Workers and employers across Canada cannot face further disruption on the co...

Two dead in an accident at a coal mine in Mexico that was operating illegally

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two miners were killed when a cable snapped on the bucket used to lower them into a small, primitive coal mine that was operating illegally in northern Mexico. The failure of the cable sent the bucket plunging down the mine shaft, killing the miners, the Labor Department said late Tuesday. The department said the accident occurred Tuesday at a mine in the northern border state of Coahuila. The mine was operating illegally because access to the mine had been restricted after an inspection found safety violations there in August 2022, the department said.The bodies of the two miners were recovered. In 2022, 10 miners died trapped in a flooded coal mine in the same area. In 2021, seven miners were killed at a similar small mine.The Mexican government enacted a plan three years ago to revive coal-fired power plants in northern Mexico and give preference to buying coal from the smallest mines. That resuscitated a form of coal mining so dangerous that lawmakers had trie...

‘Am I crossing picket lines if I see a movie?’ and other Hollywood strike fan questions answered

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

You watch movies. You watch TV. And now you’re wondering how the dual Hollywood strikes — a pitched battle with actors and writers on one side, and studios and streaming services on the other — will affect you. We have answers.Do the strikes mean “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” aren’t coming out?They — and all other summer releases — are still on track! Many flashy premieres have been canceled, however, or dramatically scaled down.Am I crossing the picket line by seeing one of those movies? No, the unions have not asked fans to boycott productions, and are quick to make that explicit. Instead, the guilds have asked supporters who aren’t members to post on social media and donate to community funds.Should I cancel Netflix, MAX or the 16 other streaming services I subscribe to if I want to show support?Nope, there’s been no consumer boycott of any kind called yet. Some guild members have said watching their programs on streaming services — if they’re still on ...

The Taliban use tasers, fire hoses and gunfire to break up Afghan women protesting beauty salon ban

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

Dozens of Afghan women protested a beauty salon ban on Wednesday after the Taliban ordered their closure nationwide. Security forces used fire hoses, tasers and shot their guns into the air to break up the protest.The Taliban said earlier this month they were giving all salons in Afghanistan one month to wind down their businesses and close shop, drawing concern from international officials worried about the impact on female entrepreneurs. The Taliban say they are outlawing salons allegedly because they offer services forbidden by Islam and cause economic hardship for grooms’ families during wedding festivities.The ruling came from the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada — the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment.In a rare sign of public opposition to Taliban orders, dozens of beauticians and makeup artists gathered in the capital of Kabul to protest the ban.“We are...

Prosecutor says Kevin Spacey used celebrity status for ‘opportunity grab’ described by accusers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:12 GMT

LONDON (AP) — It was more than a coincidence that three of Kevin Spacey ‘s four accusers described similar crotch-grabbing incidents, a prosecutor said Wednesday in her closing argument at his sexual assault trial.Prosecutor Christine Agnew told a London jury that Spacey seized brief moments for an “opportunity grab” and was able to get away with it for years because he was a celebrity. The two-time Oscar winner long had benefited from a “trinity of protection,” knowing that men he attacked would not complain. If they did, he knew they wouldn’t be believed; if they were believed, he knew authorities wouldn’t take action because of his status, Agnew said. That began to change after allegations in the U.S. arose in 2017 during the height of the #MeToo movement when a fellow American actor accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior decades earlier. Other allegations followed and eventually led the four men, who did not know each other, to independently complain to Engli...