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Bribery case against Sen. Menendez shines light on powerful NJ developer accused of corruption

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In late 2020, Sen. Bob Menendez met with Philip Sellinger, a private practice lawyer and former fundraiser for the senator, to assess his potential fit as the next U.S. Attorney for the state of New Jersey — and to discuss one case in particular.If appointed, Sellinger would assume control of one of the largest prosecutor’s offices in the country, a post that comes with the power to bust mob bosses and go after corrupt public officials.But Menendez, federal prosecutors say, was fixated on a less consequential matter: ensuring the future prosecutor would act sympathetically toward a friend of his facing bank fraud charges, real estate developer Fred Daibes.Daibes is now a key figure in a sweeping bribery case brought against Menendez, his wife and multiple other associates. It accuses Menendez and his wife of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash, gold bars and a luxury car in exchange for a range of favors, including secretly aiding the government ...

Zelenskyy, accompanied by Trudeau, greets cheering crowd of supporters in Toronto

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

TORONTO — A large crowd of members of the Ukrainian community and politicians welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, with a standing ovation as they walked into a Canadian Armed Forces facility in Toronto Friday night.About 1,000 people gathered at the Fort York Armoury to show support for Zelenskyy, who is visiting Canada for the first time since Russian troops began a full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022.Zelenskyy and his wife arrived at the venue accompanied by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.A group of students and teachers from St. Demetrius Ukrainian school in Toronto sang the Ukrainian anthem while others were singing along and waving Ukrainian and Canadian flags.Trudeau has announced that Canada is extending its financial support to Ukraine with a $650-million commitment to give the country more predictable and stable support over the next three years.Canada ha...

The federal government is headed into a shutdown. What does it mean, who’s hit and what’s next?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is heading toward a shutdown that will disrupt many services, squeeze workers and roil politics as Republicans in the House, fueled by hard-right demands for deep cuts, force a confrontation over federal spending.While some government entities will be exempt — Social Security checks, for example, will still go out — other functions will be severely curtailed. Federal agencies will stop all actions deemed non-essential, and millions of federal employees, including members of the military, won’t receive paychecks.Here’s a look at what’s ahead if the government shuts down on Oct. 1.WHAT IS A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?A shutdown happens when Congress fails to pass some type of funding legislation that is signed into law by the president. Lawmakers are supposed to pass 12 different spending bills to fund agencies across the government, but the process is time-consuming. They often resort to passing a temporary extension, called a conti...

Nikki Haley’s approach to abortion is rooted in her earliest days in South Carolina politics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As a state representative running a longshot campaign for South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley would often explain her opposition to abortion with a story about her family.“I’m strongly pro-life, very pro-life, and not because my party tells me to be, but my husband was adopted, and so every day I know the blessings of having him there,” she said in 2010.She won that race and was reelected as governor before serving as former President Donald Trump’s United Nations ambassador. She’s now competing against Trump as the only woman seeking the Republican presidential nomination. And in a primary race animated by questions over the future of abortion access in the U.S., Haley is reviving the personal anecdote she would give in South Carolina — almost verbatim. “I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me, but because my husband was adopted, and I live with that blessing every day,” she told a New Hampshire audience in ...

As the world’s problems grow more challenging, the head of the United Nations gets bleaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — At the annual meeting of world leaders last year, the U.N. chief sounded a global alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet. This year, the alarm rang louder and more ominously, and the message was even more pressing: Wake up and take action — right now.Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ assessment, delivered in his no-nonsense style, aimed to shock. We are becoming “unhinged,” he said. We are inching closer to “a great fracture.” Conflicts, coups and chaos are surging. The climate crisis is growing. Divides are deepening between military and economic powers, the richer North and poorer South, East and West. “A new Rubicon” has been crossed in artificial intelligence.Guterres has spoken often on all these issues. But this year, which he called “a time of chaotic transition,” his address to leaders was tougher and even more urgent. And looking at his previous state-of-the-world speeches, it seems clear he has been headed in this direction for quite so...

A month after Prigozhin’s suspicious death, the Kremlin is silent on his plane crash and legacy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

Why Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private jet plummeted into a field northwest of Moscow is still a mystery. The Russian military leaders he tried to oust with his armed rebellion remain in power. His mercenary army is under new management.And President Vladimir Putin, whose authority was badly dented by the short-lived mutiny, seems as strong as ever, with Prigozhin’s fiery death sending a chilling message to anyone challenging him.A month after Prigozhin was killed in a suspicious plane crash, the Kremlin seems to be succeeding in keeping the demise of the profane and outspoken Wagner chief as low-key as possible — a strategy underlined by Putin’s absence at his funeral and troops keeping the media from entering Porokhovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg for his Aug. 29 burial.Prigozhin’s funeral was “the culmination of a covert operation aimed at his elimination,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. It was conducted under the stric...

Meet Lachlan Murdoch, soon to be the new power behind Fox News and the Murdoch empire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

For Lachlan Murdoch, this moment has been a long time coming. Assuming, of course, that his moment has actually arrived.On Thursday, his father Rupert Murdoch announced that in November he’ll step down as the head of his two media companies: News Corp. and Fox Corp. Lachlan will become the chair of News Corp. while remaining chief executive and chair at Fox Corp., the parent of Fox News Channel.The changes make Rupert’s eldest son the undisputed leader of the media empire his father built over decades. There’s no real sign that his siblings and former rivals James and Elisabeth contested him for the top job; James in particular has distanced himself from the company and his father’s politics for several years. But Rupert, now 92, has long had a penchant for building up his oldest children only to later undermine them — and sometimes to set them against one another — often flipping the table without notice. Given Rupert Murdoch’s advanced age, this might...

Cracks in Western wall of support for Ukraine emerge as Eastern Europe and US head toward elections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Once rock-solid, the support that Ukraine has gotten from its biggest backers for its fight against Russia is showing cracks. Political posturing in places like Poland and Slovakia, where a trade dispute with Ukraine has stirred tensions, and Republican reticence in the United States about Washington’s big spending to prop up Ukraine’s military have raised new uncertainties about the West’s commitment to its efforts to expel Russian invaders more than 18 months into the war.And Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hopes to outlast allied backing for Kyiv, will be ready to capitalize if he sees Ukraine is running low on air defense or other weapons.The West has long been shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine against Russia. But between Ukraine’s impassioned, unending pleas for help, and huge handouts from its backers, signs of discord have emerged. In July, Britain’s defense minister at the time said Ukraine should show “gratitude” to the West, after Ky...

Louisiana folklorist and Mississippi blues musician among 2023 National Heritage Fellows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana folklorist Nick Spitzer and Mississippi blues musician R.L. Boyce are among nine 2023 National Heritage Fellows set to be celebrated later this month by the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the nation’s highest honors in the folk and traditional arts.Spitzer and Boyce are scheduled to accept the NEA’s Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship, which includes a $25,000 award, at a Sept. 29 ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Hawes award recognizes individuals who have “made a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.”Spitzer, an anthropology professor at Tulane University’s School of Liberal Arts, has hosted the popular radio show “American Routes” for the past 25 years, most recently from a studio at Tulane in New Orleans. The show has featured interviews with Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Fats Domino and 1,200 other figures in American music and culture.Each two-hour p...

Historians race to find Great Lakes shipwrecks before quagga mussels destroy the sites

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:18:29 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Great Lakes’ frigid fresh water used to keep shipwrecks so well preserved that divers could see dishes in the cupboards. Downed planes that spent decades underwater were left so pristine they could practically fly again when archaeologists finally discovered them.Now, an invasive mussel is destroying shipwrecks deep in the depths of the lakes, forcing archeologists and amateur historians into a race against time to find as many sites as they can before the region touching eight U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario loses any physical trace of its centuries-long maritime history. “What you need to understand is every shipwreck is covered with quagga mussels in the lower Great Lakes,” Wisconsin state maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen said. “Everything. If you drain the lakes, you’ll get a bowl of quagga mussels.”Quagga mussels, finger-sized mollusks with voracious appetites, have become the dominant invasive species in the lower Great Lakes over...