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Syria’s US-backed Kurdish troops and militia remove militia’s commander in bid to end deadly clashes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed forces and an allied militia announced Wednesday they have removed the militia’s commander from his post after his arrest this week led to intense clashes in the country’s east that have killed at least 32 people, including at least three civilians. The clashes spread to several towns and villages in the province of Deir el-Zour and were the worst in years in a region where hundreds of U.S. troops have been based since 2015 to help in the battle against the militant Islamic State group.The fighting erupted early Monday, a day after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained the commander and several members of the Deir el-Zour Military Council, after inviting them to a meeting in the northeastern city of Hassakeh. The militia had been allied with the Kurdish-led force against IS.The clashes pitted SDF members against the militia and some regional Arab tribesmen who had sided with the Deir el-Zour Military Council. ...

Authors Jesmyn Ward and James McBride are among the nominees for the 10th annual Kirkus Prizes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Novels by Jesmyn Ward and James McBride and story collections by Jamal Brinkley and Kelly Link are among the finalists Wednesday for the 10th annual Kirkus Prizes, for which winners in fiction, nonfiction and young reader’s literature each receive $50,000.Kirkus judges selected six books for each of the three categories, with winners to be announced Oct. 11. The awards are presented by the trade publication Kirkus Reviews.Ward’s slave narrative “Let Us Descend” and McBride’s 20th century tale “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” were nominated in fiction, along with Brinkley’s “Witness,” Link’s “White Cat, Black Dog,” the acclaimed Irish novelist Paul Murray’s “The Bee Sting” and New Zealander Eleanor Catton’s “Birnam Wood.”In nonfiction, finalists include Jennifer Homan’s George Balanchine biography “Mr. B,” Safiya Sinclair’s memoir “How To Say Babylon” and Tania Branigan’s “Red Memory: The Af...

Soldiers in Gabon say they’ve seized power and detained a president whose family ruled for 55 years

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) — Mutinous soldiers claimed to have seized power in Gabon on Wednesday and put the president under house arrest, hours after he was declared the winner in an election extending his family’s 55-year rule in the oil-rich Central African nation.In a video apparently from detention in his residence, President Ali Bongo Ondimba called on people to “make noise” to support him. But crowds instead took to the streets of the capital and sang the national anthem to celebrate the coup attempt against a dynasty accused of getting rich on the country’s resource wealth while many of its citizens struggle to scrape by.“Thank you, army. Finally, we’ve been waiting a long time for this moment,” said Yollande Okomo, standing in front of soldiers from Gabon’s elite republican guard, one of the units that staged the takeover. Bongo, 64, has served two terms since coming to power in 2009 after the death of his father, who ruled the country for 41 years, and there has been widespre...

Hurricane Idalia unleashes fury on Florida after making landfall as a dangerous Category 3 storm

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a catastrophic Category 3 storm on Wednesday and unleashed life-threatening storm surges and rainfall across an area that has never before received such pummeling.More than 230,000 customers were without electricity as trees snapped by strong winds brought down power lines and rushing water covered streets. Along the coast, some homes were submerged to near their rooftops and structures crumpled. As the eye moved inland, destructive winds shredded signs and sent sheet metal flying. “We have multiple trees down, debris in the roads, do not come,” posted the fire and rescue department in Cedar Key, where a tide gauge measured the storm surge at 6.8 feet (2 meters), submerging most of hte downtown. “We have propane tanks blowing up all over the island.” Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. It made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7...

Tesla is allowing no-hands driving with Autopilot for longer periods. US regulators have questions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is allowing some drivers use its Autopilot driver-assist system for extended periods without making them put their hands on the steering wheel, a development that has drawn concern from U.S. safety regulators.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered Tesla to tell the agency how many vehicles have received a software update making that possible and it’s seeking more information on what the electric vehicle maker’s plans are for wider distribution.“NHTSA is concerned that this feature was introduced to consumer vehicles, and now that the existence of this feature is known to the public, more drivers may attempt to activate it,” John Donaldson, the agency’s acting chief counsel, wrote in a July 26 letter to Tesla that was posted on the agency’s website. “The resulting relaxation of controls designed to ensure that the driver remain engaged in the dynamic driving task could lead to greater driver inattention and failure ...

CNN names Mark Thompson, former BBC and New York Times executive, as its new leader

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN is bringing in a former chief executive of the BBC and The New York Times in an attempt to turn around a news organization that has burned through two leaders and bled viewers over the past two years.Mark Thompson was appointed as chair and CEO of CNN by David Zaslav, head of the network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, which made the announcement Wednesday. Thompson replaces Chris Licht, who was fired in June, and a four-person team that had been running CNN in the interim.Thompson, who left the Times in 2020 after eight years as that company’s president and CEO, is credited with transforming it to a digital-first organization more dependent on paid subscribers than the collapsing advertising market that has doomed many newspapers. The England native was director-general of the BBC from 2004 to 2012.Zaslav called him a “true innovator” who pushed two of the world’s most respected news organizations into the digital age.“His strategic v...

Trudeau to visit Indonesia, Singapore and India next week as Canada seeks trade deals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to Asia next week for a whirlwind tour of Indonesia, Singapore and India.The trip involves the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi, and a focus on economic ties in booming regions of Southeast Asia, as Canada seeks alternatives to a rising China.In Jakarta, Trudeau will attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where the group of 10 countries that will ratify a strategic-partnership agreement with Canada.The next stop in Singapore will involve meeting with the city-state’s head of government and business leaders to promote investment in Canada and Canadian exports.Trudeau will then attend the G20 summit where he plans to focus on collaboration on climate change, reforming international finance for poorer states and energy security.A news release suggests Trudeau is slated to spend just two days in each country, with a focus on boosting trade and affordability. Ottawa is in negotiations for separate trade...

Gabon’s wealthy, dynastic leader thought he could resist Africa’s trend of coups. He might be wrong

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, knew well the threat of military coups in his part of the world. But he swore one wouldn’t happen to him.“While our continent has been shaken in recent weeks by violent crises, rest assured that I will never allow you and our country Gabon to be hostages to attempts at destabilization. Never,” Bongo declared this month as the central African nation marked 60 years of independence from France, almost all of that time with his family in power.Now, according to a group of mutinous Gabonese security forces who spoke on state television early Wednesday, he is under house arrest, accused of “unpredictable, irresponsible governance.” The soldiers who claimed authority said people around Bongo had been arrested for “high betrayal,” embezzlement and corruption, though it was not clear whether the president himself faced those charges.In a minute-long video shared with The Associated Press and apparently filmed at home in the ca...

2 seriously injured in Kane County head-on crash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

ELBURN, Ill. — Two people were seriously injured Tuesday afternoon following a head-on crash in Kane County.Just before 1:45 p.m., deputies were dispatched to Route 47 at Kenmar Drive, located in Elburn, on the report of a head-on crash involving two vehicles.Authorities said it involved a white pickup truck and a gray Sprinter van. One occupant was flown to Good Samaritan Hospital with serious injuries. The other driver was sent to NorthwesterN Medicine — Delnor in serious condition.

How Justin Steele made his pitch for the Cy Young again on Tuesday

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

CHICAGO — As the 2023 season has gone along, the Cubs' top starting pitcher has continued to make his case for the highest honor a pitcher can receive in Major League Baseball. Justin Steele had one of his best arguments on Tuesday, coming up big once again for his team in the midst of a postseason push.The Cubs' All-Star starter was on his game during his outing against the red-hot Brewers at Wrigley Field, throwing six shutout innings in 1-0 victory that stops Milwaukee's nine-game winning streak. It helps keep Steele's team in sight of the top of the National League Central division, as the Brewers lead was trimmed to four with the Cubs' victory. That win also kept the team in the second Wild Card spot, a game ahead of the Giants with 30 games to go. Steele had to work for the six shutout innings, throwing 111 pitches in that time, but he more than did his job. He scattered six hits during the six shutout innings, striking out eight batters while giving up just one walk. After St...