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Israel’s High Court hears a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove Netanyahu from office

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday was hearing a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, which critics say is designed to protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been working to reshape the justice system while he is on trial for alleged corruption.The hearing is part of several pivotal court challenges against a proposed package of legislation and government steps meant to alter the country’s justice system. It comes after months of turmoil in Israel over the plan and deepens a rift between Netanyahu’s government and the judiciary, which it wants to weaken despite unprecedented opposition. Thursday’s hearing on the law, the second by the High Court, took place in front of an expanded 11-judge panel, underscoring the importance of the deliberations.Netanyahu’s governing coalition — Israel’s most religious and nationalist ever — passed an amendment known as the “incapacitation law” in March which allows ...

Stock market today: Global shares mostly fall over China worries

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mostly lower Thursday in subdued trading on looming worries about China property woes. France’s CAC 40 shed 0.3% to 7,050.19 in early trading. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.4% to 15,164.02. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged down 0.6% to 7,544.91. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down nearly 0.1% at 33,759.00. S&P 500 futures was virtually unchanged at 4,313.00. Trading in shares of heavily indebted Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group was suspended in Hong Kong. That followed media reports that the chairman of Evergrande, Hui Ka Yan, had been taken away earlier this month and placed under police watch.Evergrande is the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer and is at the center of a property market crisis that is dragging on China’s economic growth.“The relatively quiet economic calendar today may lead sentiments on a more subdued tone, while reservations on risk taking may continue to revolve aroun...

Vietnam sentences climate activist to 3 years in prison for tax evasion

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese climate activist was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud, state media reported.Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 50, who headed the environmental advocacy group Change, which works on environment and climate issues, was also fined 100 million Vietnamese dong ($4,100) by a court in Ho Chi Minh City, the state-owned Viet Nam News reported.She is the fifth known climate or environmental activist who has been jailed in Vietnam in the past five years.“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton of the human rights group The 88 Project, adding that it shows the law being weaponized to go after climate activists.Hong was accused of evading taxes amounting to 6.7 billion Vietnamese dong ($274,702) from 2012 to 2022, state media reported citing the indictment.The trial lasted half a day after Hong pled guilty.In 2018, U.S. President Barack Obama described Hong as one of the young people worldwide ...

Analysis: American soldier’s release from detention was quick by North Korean standards

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Maybe it never made sense for North Korea to hold on to Pvt. Travis King.Just over two months after he sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, King was put on a plane back to America after the North released him into U.S. custody. Several recent American detainees had been held for over a year — 17 months in the case of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was arrested during a group tour. Warmbier was in a coma when he was deported, and later died.King’s case was unique, not least because he was one of the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from the nuclear-armed North.There had been speculation that North Korea would try to maximize the propaganda value of an active duty U.S. soldier who voluntarily crossed into its territory, reportedly because he was disillusioned with racism in the military and American society. The North has often been accused of using American de...

An explosion following a lightning strike in the Uzbek capital kills 1 person and injures 162

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

A powerful explosion in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, killed a teenage boy Thursday and injured at least 162 people following a fire caused by a lightning strike, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Health said.The Ministry of Emergency Situations said the explosion happened early in the morning at a warehouse in southern Tashkent but did not say what was inside it to cause the powerful blast which it said was attended by 16 fire crews. Russian state media Tass later reported that the warehouse contained several dozen electric vehicles and batteries. It said that the explosion also caused minor damage to the nearby Quruvchilar subway station. Video and photos posted on social media showed a fire and cloud of smoke that was visible across Tashkent, as well as apartments that had reportedly been damaged by the force of the blast. Twenty-four people were hospitalized after the explosion and the remaining 138 were treated for their injuries and sent home according to the health ministry which added...

As thaw accelerates, Swiss glaciers have lost 10% of their volume in the past 2 years, experts say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier melt in the Alpine country, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in just two years after high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter.Switzerland — home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe — has seen 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023, the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022, the biggest thaw since measurements began, the academy’s commission for cryosphere observation said.Experts at the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center have been on the lookout for a possible extreme melt this year amid early warning signs about the country’s estimated 1,400 glaciers, a number that is now dwindling.“The acceleration is dramatic, with as much ice being lost in only two years as was the case between 1960 and 1990,” the academy said. “The two extreme consecutive years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and the disappearance of many smaller...

Storm Elias crashes into a Greek city, filling homes with mud and knocking out power

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

VOLOS, Greece (AP) — A second powerful storm in less than a month hammered parts of central Greece Thursday, sweeping away roads, smashing bridges and flooding thousands of homes.The storm — called Elias — caused extensive flooding in the central city of Volos and left hundreds stranded in nearby mountain villages. The fire service carried out multiple rescues and evacuations, authorities said.“All of Volos has turned into a lake,” the city’s mayor, Achilleas Beos, told state television. “People’s lives are in danger. Even I remained trapped, and 80% of the city is without power. … I don’t know where God found so much water. It’s like the story of Noah’s Ark.”Bad weather earlier this month struck the same area, killing 16 people, and causing more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in damage to farms and infrastructure.Residents in Volos used plastic buckets to scoop mud out of their homes to try to protect their belongings. Among them was 83-year-old Apostolis Dafereras, who has li...

M.S. Swaminathan, who helped India’s farming to grow at industrial scale, dies at 98

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, a renowned agricultural scientist who revolutionized India’s farming and was a key architect of the country’s “Green Revolution” died Thursday. He was 98.Swaminathan died at his home in southern Chennai city after an age-related illness, news agency Press Trust of India reported.In the late 1960s and 1970s, the agriculturalist was instrumental in bringing industrial farming to India, making the country self-sufficient in food and reducing widespread hunger. India’s “Green Revolution,” as it was known, turned the northern states of Punjab and Haryana into breadbaskets for wheat and rice production, helping low-income farmers.The initiative, now dubbed as a transformational era in Indian agriculture, introduced high-yielding cereal varieties and expanded use of irrigation and fertilizers. Grain production increased exponentially, at a time when India was beset with widespread starvation. For his work, Swaminathan was named one of...

Haley to Ramaswamy: 'Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber'

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

(The Hill) - Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley bashed fellow contender Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday night for his stance on TikTok, sparring onstage at the second GOP debate. “This is infuriating, because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have. And … honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” Haley said, taking a swipe at the 38-year-old entrepreneur.  Asked about his move to join the video-sharing app TikTok, despite it being banned on government-issued devices due to concerns about its parent company's ties to the Chinese government, Ramaswamy said, "Part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young Americans where we are." Kids under 16 shouldn't be on "addictive social media," Ramaswamy said, but "we're only going to ever get to declaring independence from China, which I favor, if we actually win." A former United Nations ambassador, Haley's first TV campaign advertise...

Powerball jackpot climbs again, hits $925 million after another drawing without a winner

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:13:38 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (NEXSTAR) — The Powerball jackpot climbed to an estimated $925 million after no players hit it big Wednesday night, continuing a stretch of lottery futility that has lasted for more than two months.The winning numbers were: 1, 7, 46, 47, 63 and red Powerball 7. There were $1 million winners in California, Kansas, Maryland and New York.The jackpot has grown so large because there have now been 30 consecutive drawings without a big winner, dating back to July 19. Powerball’s terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes becoming ever larger as they repeatedly roll over when no one wins.Despite its growth, the jackpot still comes in behind a $2.04 billion jackpot hit last November in California; a $1.586 billion jackpot split by three tickets (California, Florida, Tennessee) in 2016; and a $1.08 billion jackpot won by a California ticket in July.The jackpot is the ninth-largest ever, and would need to surpass $1 b...