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Russia TV celebrates as it reports the capture of Bakhmut, comparing it to Berlin in 1945

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

By DASHA LITVINOVA and SAMYA KULLAB (Associated Press)TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian TV went into a full frenzy of celebration as it reported Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. There were comparisons to the Red Army liberating Berlin in 1945, congratulations relayed from President Vladimir Putin and announcers emphasizing the victory by using the city’s nearly century-old Soviet name of Artyomovsk.“The myth that Artyomovsk is an unassailable fortress has been crushed,” an anchor said Sunday night on Channel One, Russia’s most popular state broadcaster. “Those are historic events.”A report from the smoldering city in eastern Ukraine followed, showing Russian fighters yelling “Victory!” and placing two flags — the Russian tricolor and the black flag of the private military contractor Wagner — atop a tall, partly destroyed building.The flags were mounted “so that everyone could see them,̶...

Recipe: Antipasto Pasta Salad perfect for Memorial Day weekend (or anytime)

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

A holiday weekend is coming up! Here’s a quick and easy dinner for the weekend, or anytime. It’s based on an antipasto platter that usually contains cured meats, olives, cheese, assorted pickles and vegetables. Thinking of these ingredients, I created a quick and easy pasta salad. You can use other cured meats and vegetables that you like. Use this recipe as a guide for quantities. The salad can be made a day ahead. Refrigerate it and bring to room temperature before serving.Helpful hintsLook for reduced-sodium ham and smoked turkey breast at the deli counter.You can use any type of short cut pasta such as bowtie or penne.CountdownPlace water for pasta on to boil.Prepare all ingredients.Boil pasta.Assemble the salad.Shopping listTo buy:1 container corkscrew pasta1 bottle balsamic vinegar1/4 lb. sliced lean deli ham1/4 lb. sliced reduced-sodium smoked turkey breast1 small container pitted black olives1 can/jar roasted red peppers1 jar pepperoncini1 piece Parmesan cheese1 tomato1 bunc...

New search for Madeleine McCann, UK toddler missing since 2007, Portuguese police confirm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

LISBON (AP) — Portuguese police have said they will resume searching for Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who disappeared in the country’s Algarve region in 2007, in the next few days.Portugal’s Judicial Police released a statement confirming local media reports that they would conduct the search at the request of the German authorities and in the presence of British officials.Earlier on Monday, police were seen erecting tents and cordons in an area by the Arade dam, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Praia da Luz, where the 3-year-old was last seen alive.British, Portuguese and German police are still piecing together what happened when the toddler disappeared from her bed in the southern Portuguese resort on May 3, 2007. She was in the same room as her 2-year-old twin brother and sister while her parents had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.In mid-2020, Germany’s police identified Christian Brueckner, a 45-year-old German citizen who was in the Algarve in 2007, as ...

Florida sued over new law blocking Chinese citizens, other foreigners from buying property

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of Chinese citizens living and working in Florida sued the state Monday over a new law that bans Chinese nationals from purchasing property in large swaths of the state.The law applies to land near military installations and other “critical infrastructure” and also affects citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. But Chinese citizens face the harshest restrictions.The law “will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent in violation of the Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. It will also cast an undue burden of suspicion on anyone seeking to buy property whose name sounds remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a press release announcing the suit.The suit says the law unfairly equates Chinese people with the actions of their government and there is no evidence of national security risk from Chinese citizens buying Florida pro...

Minnesota Legislature puts final touches on $72B budget as Democrats celebrate successes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Legislature was putting the final touches on a $72 billion state budget Monday as Democrats celebrated enacting an ambitious agenda that ranged from protecting abortion rights, to providing more resources for education, to legalizing marijuana.The big tax bill of the session, which cleared its final test Sunday evening, included $3 billion in tax cuts, including modest one-time rebates from the state’s $17.5 billion budget surplus. But lawmakers also approved tax increases to provide ongoing funding for long-term initiatives like transportation improvements and a new paid family and medical leave program.Lawmakers faced an adjournment deadline of midnight on Monday night. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz called it “clearly the most successful legislative session” in many Minnesotans’ lifetimes.Democrats, who control both the House and Senate for the first time in eight years, regularly describe the legislation...

Rick Hummel, longtime St. Louis baseball writer known as ‘The Commish,’ dies at 77

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

Rick Hummel, who covered the Cardinals for five decades for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and who is enshrined in the writer’s wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, has died.The Post-Dispatch reported that Hummel — known as “The Commish” by friends, players, managers, even baseball commissioners — died Saturday after a short, unspecified illness. He was 77.Hummel was born in 1946 in Quincy, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1968. He was hired at the Post-Dispatch in 1971, joining the baseball beat two years later. He chronicled three Cardinals’ World Series championships, seven National League pennants and six MVP seasons.Hummel received the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award in 2006, placed by his peers in the writers’ wing in Cooperstown. He said in his speech that the honor was “more than just a dream come true because I never could have dreamt this.”Sixteen years after that, Hummel wa...

Pakistan re-arrests Imran Khan’s key associate amid crackdown on his followers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani authorities Monday arrested a key associate of former Prime Minister Imran Khan just hours after she was released from custody as authorities pressed on with a crackdown on Khan’s supporters. Shireen Mazari, who served as rights minister under Khan during his 2018-2022 term in office, was arrested last Thursday in the capital, Islamabad, on charges of inciting people to violence. She was released Monday on a court order but was again taken into custody hours later.Mazari has been a vocal critic of Pakistan’s military and the government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who replaced Khan after his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022.Authorities began a crackdown after Khan supporters attacked public property and military installations following his arrest this month.Mazari’s daughter, Imaan Mazari, had petitioned a high court, arguing that her mother’s arrest was unlawful. She said the Lahore High Court ordered...

A firsthand account of life behind bars in Canadian women’s prisons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

Movies and television shows have betrayed me, and probably you too at least when it comes to depicting life behind bars.For over a decade, I’ve been fascinated with and done a lot of reporting on Canada and Ontario’s correctional system.I’ve been in many provincial jails, and they look like jails, primarily dated, bars on some cells, metal doors with small windows and hatches, inmates in orange jumpers and t-shirts.But when it comes to women’s prisons where offenders are convicted of serious crimes and serving terms of two years or more, it looks more like a campus than a correctional centre.For six months, my crew and I spent considerable time in the Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI) in Kitchener, ON and Alberta’s Edmonton Institution for Women (EIW) to film the latest episode of VeraCity: Prison Moms.I was expecting scenes from the TV show Orange is the New Black and the Australian show Wentworth, and instead, it felt like a rougher version of 90210 but with an all-female l...

Israeli defense chief says military has more than doubled strikes on Iranian targets in Syria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s defense minister Monday said that Israel’s new government has greatly increased the number of strikes on Iranian targets since taking office late last year.Yoav Gallant did not provide an exact number of airstrikes. But the address, delivered at a security conference, marked rare public comments on Israeli military activity in Syria.“Since I took office, the number of Israeli strikes against the Iranians in Syria have doubled,” Gallant said. “As part of this campaign, we are working methodically to strike the Iranian intelligence capabilities in Syria,” he said. “These strikes inflict significant damage to the attempts by the Revolutionary Guard to establish a foothold a few kilometers from the Israeli border.”Gallant also accused Iran of converting civilian ships into military vessels armed with weapons such as drones, missiles and intelligence-gathering capabilities. He said Iran hopes to station these ships at long distances from ...

Rick Hummel, esteemed St Louis-based baseball writer, dead at 77

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rick Hummel, an esteemed writer who covered the St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball for five decades for the Post-Dispatch until his retirement last year, has died. He was 77.Hummel died in his sleep at his St. Louis-area home early Saturday after a short, aggressive illness, the Post-Dispatch said Monday.He was nicknamed “The Commish” for running an American Professional Baseball Association board game with colleagues, and the moniker became so widespread throughout baseball that even Commissioners Bud Selig and Rob Manfred called Hummel by the label.“The 51-year ride, except for a couple of broken windows, has been a smooth one,” Hummel wrote in a farewell column in the Post-Dispatch last November. “I got to cover countless Cardinals playoffs, including three World Series champions, 35 World Series and the past 42 All-Star games, starting and ending in Dodger Stadium. There was the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998 and `Whiteyball’ in ...