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Jesuits confirm expulsion of priest artist, and lament Vatican norms preclude further sanction

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

ROME (AP) — The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist priest is definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn’t prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures.The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest but is no longer a Jesuit priest, after he didn’t appeal his June expulsion decree, said Rupnik’s former superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren.Rupnik, a Slovenian priest, is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church. His mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.Late last year, the Jesuits acknowledged Rupnik had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse over a 30-year period. He had largely escaped punishment until then, apparently thanks in part to his exalted status in the church and at the Vatican, where even Pope Francis’ role in the case came into q...

Fukushima plant water release within weeks raises worries about setbacks to businesses, livelihoods

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holiday makers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon.Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.The residents worry that the water discharge 12 years after the nuclear disaster could deal another setback to Fukushima’s image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods.“Without a healthy ocean, I cannot make a living.” said Yukinaga Suzuki, a 70-year-old innkeeper at Usuiso beach in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the plant. And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin. It’s not yet clear whether, or how, damaging the release will be. But residents say they feel “shikataganai” — meaning helpless. Suzuki has requested officials to hold the p...

Indonesian boat capsizes off Sulawesi island, leaving at least 15 people dead and 19 others missing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An overloaded passenger boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 15 people and leaving 19 others missing, rescuers said Monday.The vessel was traveling from Lanto village in Buton Central regency in Southeast Sulawesi province to nearby Lagili village when it capsized just after midnight on Monday, local search and rescue agency head Muhammad Arafah said.The wooden boat was carrying 40 people but was designed for just 20.Rescuers were searching Monday for 19 people who were still missing in rough seas, while 15 bodies had been recovered and six people were rescued, Arafah said.Three inflatable boats, two fishing boats and six divers were deployed to search for the missing people, he added.Thousands of residents had traveled to their villages to celebrate the regency’s 9th anniversary on Sunday, and many people were transported by fishing or passenger boats.Television news showed footage of people on fishing boats retrieving bodi...

Oui, oui: Jill Biden heads to Paris to help mark US return to UN educational and scientific agency

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden has represented her country at the Olympics in Tokyo, a king’s coronation in London and a royal wedding in Jordan. She gets another chance to put her ambassadorial skills to work this week when the United States formally rejoins a United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture around the globe.Biden was arriving in Paris early Monday after flying overnight from Washington to join other VIPs and speak at a ceremony Tuesday at the headquarters of the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization. The American flag will be raised to mark the U.S. return to membership after a five-year absence.UNESCO aims to foster global collaboration in education, science and culture. It also designates World Heritage sites, deeming them worthy of eternal preservation.The agency on Sunday condemned Russia’s attack on a cathedral in Odesa and other heritage sites in Ukraine in recent days and said it will send a team to the Black Se...

After decades of delays and broken promises, coal miners hail rule to slow rise of black lung

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A half-century ago, the nation’s top health experts urged the federal agency in charge of mine safety to adopt strict rules protecting miners from poisonous rock dust. The inaction since — fueled by denials and lobbying from coal and other industries — has contributed to the premature deaths of thousands of miners from pneumoconiosis, more commonly known as “black lung.” The problem has only grown in recent years as miners dig through more layers of rock to get to less accessible coal, generating deadly silica dust in the process. One former regulator called the lack of protection from silica-related illnesses “stunning” and one of the most “catastrophic” occupational health failures in U.S. history. Now the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has proposed a rule that would cut the current limit for silica exposure in half — a major victory for safety advocates. But there is skepticism and concern about the government following through ...

How Trump is gaining an advantage in the nitty-gritty battle for delegates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Set aside the polls, the fundraising numbers or Donald Trump’s name recognition as metrics of his early dominance of the Republican presidential contest. He has what could prove to be the most important advantage in the race: a leg up in winning the delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination.While the delegate count won’t begin taking shape until voting begins next January, Trump’s edge in the race to win their votes is years in the making. Many state Republican parties made changes to their rules ahead of the 2020 election by adding more winner-take-all contests and requiring candidates to earn higher percentages of the vote to claim any delegates. Those changes all benefit a frontrunner, a position Trump has held despite his mounting legal peril, blame for his party’s lackluster performance in the 2022 elections and the turbulent years of his presidency.As Trump makes another run for the White House, he has been focused on the looming battle fo...

Texas is using disaster declarations to install buoys and razor wire on the US-Mexico border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — Wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande. Razor wire strung across private property without permission. Bulldozers changing the very terrain of America’s southern border. For more than two years, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated measures to keep migrants from entering the U.S., pushing legal boundaries with a go-it-alone bravado along the state’s 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Now blowback over the tactics is widening, including from within Texas. A state trooper’s account of officers denying migrants water in 100-degree Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) temperatures and razor wire leaving asylum-seekers bloodied has prompted renewed criticism. The Mexican government, the Biden administration and some residents are pushing back.Abbott, who cruised to a third term in November while promising tougher border crackdowns, has used disaster declarations as the legal bedrock for some measures. Critics call that a warped...

What to stream this week: Post Malone, Zach Galifianakis, ‘This Fool,’ Thandiwe Newton and ‘Heels’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

Thandiwe Newton starring in a thriller, the return of the TV family wrestling drama “Heels” and a new album from Post Malone are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near youAmong the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are comedian Chris Estrada’s series “This Fool” returning for a second season and Zach Galifianakis starring in a movie about the creation of the ultra-collectable Beanie Babies.NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— Zach Galifianakis takes on a different kind of role in “The Beanie Bubble,” playing Ty Warner, the founder of Ty, Inc. and creator of the Beanie Babies, which in the mid-1990s surged in popularity, and resale value, for several years. The film is not exactly about him however. Based on Zac Bissonnette’s “The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute,” directors Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash Jr. look at the women around Ty — his business partner, played by Elizabe...

Wagner Group Disappeared and Executed Civilians in Mali

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

Malian soldiers and foreign fighters, identified as members of the Russia-linked Wagner Group, have committed extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of dozens of civilians in central Mali since December 2022, according to a new Human Rights Watch report shared with The Intercept. Researchers found that the longtime U.S.-backed Malian military also tortured detainees in an army camp and destroyed and looted civilian property as part of its protracted campaign against militant Islamists.The Malian soldiers committed the atrocities in four villages in the center of the country, according to telephone interviews with 40 people knowledgeable about the abuses, half of them witnesses to the violence. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that foreign, non-French-speaking armed men whom they described as “white,” “Russians,” or “Wagner” participated in most of the attacks.In December 2021, the Malian junta reportedly authorized the deployment of Wagner mercenary forces to fight Isla...

Penalty pain: Players converted just 4 of the first 8 penalty kicks at the Women’s World Cup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:37 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — How’s this for a pair of stats? The first eight matches of the Women’s World Cup each included a penalty kick – and the attacking team converted just four times from the spot.Some of the attempts were turned away by goalkeeping heroics, others were clean misses and all four denials had some of the game’s biggest names on the short end.Longtime New Zealand striker Ria Percival missed high off the crossbar with a chance to extend the lead in the Football Ferns’ eventual opening-match upset of Norway. Spain’s all-time top scorer Jennifer Hermoso’s kick was saved by Costa Rica’s Daniela Solera.Canada captain Christine Sinclair was stopped by Nigeria captain Chiamaka Nnadozie to hold an unlikely draw between the world’s sixth-ranked and 39th-ranked teams.And finally, the U.S. co-captain Alex Morgan was denied on a strike to the left side of the net by Vietnam’s Tran Thi Kim Thanh, leading to jubilation from the Vietnamese.“I felt confident, stepped up and it ...