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Official tells AP 5 prisoners sought by US in a swap have left Tehran; flight-tracking data show Qatari plane flying out

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Official tells AP 5 prisoners sought by US in a swap have left Tehran; flight-tracking data show Qatari plane flying out.Source

Chick-fil-A returns to UK after gay rights backlash forced a retreat

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

London (CNN) — Chick-fil-A is making another foray into the United Kingdom after gay rights campaigners forced the fast-food chain to close a pop-up site in the country in 2019.The company said in a press release Thursday that it would open its first store in early 2025, with another four opening over the following two years.Each restaurant will be owned and operated as a franchise, Chick-fil-A said, and each is expected to create between 80 and 120 jobs. They will be the company’s first stores outside of North America, it added.Chick-fil-A opened a temporary store in Reading, a town west of London, in 2019, triggering protests by local LGBTQ+ rights activists. Soon after, the mall hosting the pop-up site said it would not extend the shop’s lease beyond the six-month trial period, local media outlet Berkshire Live reported.For years, the restaurant chain has faced criticism from LGBTQ+ rights activists for its past donations to Christian organizations, including the Salvation Army a...

5 prisoners sought by the US in a swap with Iran have been freed and arrived in Qatar

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran flew out of Tehran on Monday, officials said, part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen.Despite the deal, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.The planned exchange has unfolded amid a major American military buildup in the Persian Gulf, with the possibility of U.S. troops boarding and guarding commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of all oil shipments pass.President Joe Biden welcomed the news of the release in a statement, saying “five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.”He urged Americans not to travel to Iran, and he demanded more information on what happened to Bob Levinson, an American who went missing years ag...

US gas prices are unusually high. Here’s why you shouldn’t worry

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

New York (CNN) — Falling leaves typically coincide with falling gas prices as the summer driving season comes to a close and demand at the pump wanes. Instead, gasoline prices are getting more expensive and are just pennies away from their highest level so far this year.That’s because aggressive oil supply cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia and deadly flooding in Libya have sent crude prices on a tear. Oil prices hit a 10-month high on Friday and are on pace to hit their largest quarterly increase since Russia first invaded Ukraine in the beginning of 2022.Increasing oil prices are a bad omen on Wall Street — they mean higher inflation and introduce the possibility of more economy-crushing interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. More pain at the pump also means less consumer spending elsewhere and a heightened possibility of recession.There’s already a lot to fret about this autumn: Auto workers are on strike, the federal government could face another shutdown, China’s economy is s...

Person detained in connection with the ambush killing of a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

(CNN) — Authorities have detained a person believed to be connected with the fatal shooting of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was killed in his patrol car over the weekend.CNN is seeking more details on the circumstances of the detention.Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, was shot Saturday while on duty at an intersection near the sheriff’s station in Palmdale, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The deputy, who’d gotten engaged only four days earlier, was found unconscious by a civilian around 6 p.m. and pronounced dead at a hospital, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.“This coward or cowards took his life while he’s sitting at a red light, waiting to serve our community,” Luna said at a Sunday news conference.Widely circulated video captured a vehicle – described as a 2006 to 2012 dark gray Toyota Corolla – driving next to Clinkunbroomer’s patrol vehicle, Luna said, and the sheriff’s department on Sunday released photos of wh...

Hunter Biden sues the IRS over tax disclosures after agent testimony before Congress

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, claiming that two agents publicly alleging tax-probe interference wrongly shared his personal information, a case that comes amid escalating legal and political struggles as the 2024 election looms. The agents “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden” with the sharing of confidential tax information in press interviews and testimony before Congress, the suit said. His lawyers argue that whistleblower protections don’t apply, but a lawyer for one agent said any confidential information released came under whistleblower authorization.The lawsuit marks the latest legal pushback from Biden as a long-running federal investigation into him unfolds against a sharply political backdrop. That includes an impeachment inquiry aimed at his father, President Joe Biden, seeking to tie him to his son’s business dealings.“Mr. Biden is the son of the President of the Uni...

Man stabbed after getting off trolley

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A man was stabbed Sunday night after getting off the trolley in Bay Park, San Diego police said.The man, 36, had boarded the trolley with a woman in the 1200 block of Imperial Avenue "to make sure she got to her tent safely," police said. Around 11:40 p.m., the pair got off the trolley in the 2500 block of Moreno Boulevard when a man stabbed the victim in the chest and ran off. Los Angeles model found dead in apartment; second case in a week Police say the assailant used to date the woman. He was described as a Hispanic man between 50 and 60 years old, wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, green-and-white shows, a black hat and glasses.Anyone with information about the stabbing was encouraged to call SDPD or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

Italy mulls new migrant crackdown as talk turns to naval blockade to prevent launching of boats

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

ROME (AP) — The Italian Cabinet met Monday to adopt new measures to crack down on migration after the southern island of Lampedusa was again overwhelmed by a wave of arrivals from Tunisia and the migration issue returned to center stage in Europe with talk of a naval blockade.Premier Giorgia Meloni has said the Cabinet measures will focus on migrants who don’t qualify for asylum and are slated to be repatriated to their home countries. The plan is to extend the amount of time such people can be detained to the EU maximum of 18 months and increase the number of detention centers to hold them until they are sent back, since the capacity in Italy has always been insufficient.Meloni announced the “extraordinary measures” after Lampedusa, which is closer to Tunisia than the Italian mainland, was overwhelmed last week by nearly 7,000 migrants in a day, more than the island’s resident population. Italy has been offloading them slowly by ferry to Sicily and other ports, but the arrivals onc...

A Black student is suspended twice for his hairstyle. The school says it isn’t discrimination

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

MONT BELVIEU, Tex. (AP) — After serving an in-school suspension over his hairstyle, a Black high school student in Texas immediately received the same punishment when he arrived at school Monday wearing his hair as before in twisted dreadlocks tied on top of his head, his mother said. Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, was initially suspended the same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles. School officials said his dreadlocks violated the district’s dress code because his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes. George, 17, served the first suspension last week at the Houston-area school. He was in tears when he was sent back to in-school suspension Monday, his mother Darresha George said. “He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle. That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool,” she said. The incident recalls debates over hair discrimina...

Planned Parenthood resumes offering abortions in Wisconsin after more than a year

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:00 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Planned Parenthood resumed offering abortion services in Wisconsin on Monday after halting them for more than a year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.Providers across the state stopped offering abortions following the June 2022 decision, fearing enforcement of an 1849 state law that appears to ban the procedure but had previously been nullified by the 1973 Roe ruling. A judge ruled last month that the 144-year-old law actually didn’t apply to medical abortions.In light of the ruling, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin was again offering abortions at clinics in Madison and Milwaukee on Monday.The lawsuit challenging the 1849 law was brought by Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general and is expected to end up in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which flipped to liberal control last month.Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers, praised the resumption of abortion services. Meanwhile, anti-abortion rights groups in the state condemned t...