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Messi the latest pawn in proxy rivalry in Middle East

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

Lionel Messi was supposed to be training alongside his Paris Saint-Germain teammates on Monday, with his club embroiled in an increasingly fraught French league title race.Instead, the soccer great was in Saudi Arabia, holding a falcon on his arm, watching a palm-weaving demonstration and looking around the Arabian Horse Museum as part of his commercial contract with the kingdom to promote tourism in the Middle Eastern country.It will prove to be an expensive trip for the recent World Cup winner.Messi has been suspended by PSG — reportedly for two weeks, when he won’t get paid or be allowed to train or play with the team. That could yet spark the end of a turbulent and somewhat underwhelming two-season spell at a club where soap opera-style drama, on and off the field, is rarely far away given the presence of other superstars like Kylian Mbappé and Neymar in the squad.It also exposes the tensions now that Qatar and Saudi Arabia — gulf neighbors and fierce recent rivals in regional p...

Why nationalities matter as US braces for migration surge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A decade ago, it was a safe bet that anyone stopped by U.S. authorities at the southern border was probably Mexican. That’s no longer the case, complicating Biden administration efforts to prevent a swell of migration when it lifts pandemic-related asylum limits next week.Now, people come from dozens of countries, with large showings from Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, India, Russia and elsewhere. Only about a third are from Mexico — down from 85% in 2011.With the expiration on May 11 of Title 42 — which suspended migrants’ rights to asylum to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — more people are expected to arrive. Illegal crossings tumbled after President Joe Biden announced asylum restrictions in January, but they have risen since mid-April. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said they have been hovering around 7,200 daily, up from about 5,200 in March. The administration plans to rapidly screen migrants and quickly send home those who don’t...

Congressional candidate arrested for alleged drunken driving

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California lawmaker who is running for Congress was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving Tuesday night, according to law enforcement and jail records.Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who is running in the competitive 47th congressional district, said in a Facebook post that he was cited with a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. Min was released Wednesday morning after being arrested by California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department said. It wasn’t clear if he would have to appear in court.“My decision to drive last night was irresponsible. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions,” Min posted Wednesday. “To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington.”A spokesperson for Min’s Senate office declined to comment.The Orange County congressional race...

PM’s brother denies Trudeau Foundation was involved in foreign interference

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The prime minister’s brother insisted to members of Parliament on Wednesday that the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has not been part of any foreign interference attempts by China, as the organization continues to be dogged by questions about controversial donations. Alexandre Trudeau, who has been involved in the foundation since its early days and was an executive director until 2020, said the donations from Chinese businessmen were negotiated before his brother became prime minister.“I must insist there was no foreign interference, no possibility of interference, no intention or means of interference at or in the Trudeau Foundation,” he told the House of Commons ethics committee. “This is a waste of time.”The committee is investigating the circumstances around a pair of 2016 and 2017 donations from Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin and another Chinese businessman, Niu Gensheng, that totalled $140,000. The Globe and Mail had reported in Februa...

Quebec flooding: Bodies of firefighters found two days after being swept away

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

BAIE-SAINT-PAUL, Que. — Searchers recovered two bodies Wednesday believed to be those of volunteer firefighters swept away by a swollen river this week, as residents of Quebec’s Charlevoix region began cleaning up from the devastating flooding.  Provincial police spokeswoman Sgt. Béatrice Dorsainville said the bodies were found by a police helicopter in St-Urbain, Que., around 110 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. They were in the Rivière du Gouffre, about 500 metres from each other, she told reporters. While police said the bodies appear to be those of the missing firefighters, formal identification will have to come from the coroner.Media reports have identified the firefighters who went missing Monday as Christopher Lavoie, 23, and Régis Lavoie, 55, who were reportedly not related.Quebec Premier François Legault spoke about the men Wednesday during a visit to heavily flooded Baie-St-Paul, which is just downriver from St-Urbain. He noted that one of them was in his 50s an...

White House warns of recession as debt limit fight drags on

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House economists on Wednesday warned of “severe damage” to the U.S. economy in the event of a debt default, warning that a prolonged default could cause 8.3 million job losses and the stock market to tumble 45%.But the new report from the Council of Economic Advisers shows that even less severe scenarios would hamper the U.S. economy, evidence that the political showdown over the debt limit carries major financial costs. Without a deal in place between Congress and the White House, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the federal government will lack the accounting tools to keep borrowing and potentially begin to default as soon as June 1.The first and most dangerous scenario is a “protracted default.” The second is a “short default” in which Congress acts swiftly to allow the nation to borrow again after defaulting. The third is “brinkmanship,” in which lawmakers take the country’s full faith and credit to the wire, but avert d...

Ex-Miss Florida pageant director goes to prison for fraud

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The former executive director of the Miss Florida pageant has been sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization.Mary Wickersham, 77, was sentenced last Friday in Miami federal court, according to court records. Earlier this year, she pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, while six other counts were dropped. In addition to prison time, Wickersham, who is also known as Mary Sullivan, must pay $243,000 in restitution.Wickersham began serving as the executive director of the Miss Florida Scholarship Program in 2002. The program offers educational and financial assistance to young women across the state, and each year the state winner goes on to compete in the Miss America pageant, which Florida has won twice.According to a criminal complaint, Wickersham formed a Florida corporation named Miss Florida LLC in 2011 and used it to open a bank account in the same name. Without the knowledge or consent of...

Since his ouster, embarrassing reports on Carlson pile up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A week after Fox News fired star host Tucker Carlson — for reasons that remain unexplained — he has been the subject of a handful of embarrassing stories about some of his private messages and statements while at the network.The latest was in The New York Times on Wednesday, reporting on a text message that had been redacted as part of a recent defamation case targeting the network. In it, Carlson declared that a group of Trump supporters beating a protester was “not how white men fight.”The sentiment was not out of character for Carlson, who has promoted the view that whites are being “replaced” by people of color. But the Times suggested the timing was crucial, as members of Fox’s board found out about the message as part of documents uncovered in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, shortly before a trial was to begin last month.The newspaper said the discovery “contributed to a chain of events” that led to Carlson being fired April 24, l...

Washington governor rolls back limitations on police chases

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — With the stroke of a pen Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee rolled back some requirements for police to chase people in vehicles, a partial reversal of a controversial pursuit policy first enacted in the state at the height of racial injustice protests following George Floyd’s murder.Under the new law, police no longer need probable cause to initiate a pursuit. Instead, reasonable suspicion that a person inside a vehicle has committed or is committing a crime would be enough to give chase.The bill reflects a call for a return to more flexibility for law enforcement after Washington lawmakers passed an array of reforms to reduce violence and death in police response, covering everything from background checks officers undergo before they’re hired to the circumstances under which they can pursue vehicles.“Sometimes the pendulum swings too fast,” said John Bandler, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The criminal justice system is not a well-oiled whe...

Guatemala seeks arrest of ex-guerrilla leader in 1980 blast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:24 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A judge in Guatemala issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for Gustavo Meoño, a former leftist guerrilla leader and transparency activist, in connection with a 1980 bomb attack. The bombing in Guatemala City’s main plaza killed several people and was blamed on the rebels of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor. The attack occurred during the country’s 1960-1996 civil war between the army and leftist rebels in which over 200,000 people died, most at the hands of the military. Meoño was leader of the Army of the Poor at the time of the attack. He later went on to head the National Police Historic Archive, a collection of millions of documents found in a warehouse in 2005 that documented rights abuses during the conflict. Meoño faces homicide and other charges in the case. He had not been charged until now because the case was based on a complaint filed by citizens in 2017.The Associated Press