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New Zealand’s ex-Premier Jacinda Ardern will join conservation group to rally for environment action

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will work alongside leaders from Conservation International to advocate for climate action and better treatment of the environment, the group said Monday. Conservation International said Ardern has become its sixth Arnhold Distinguished Fellow and would serve a two-year term to advocate internationally, especially on issues affecting the Pacific and Antarctica. The group said the role was considered part-time and came with a stipend.It is one several new roles Ardern has announced since unexpectedly stepping down as prime minister in January. She is also completing dual fellowships at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and writing a book on leadership.“From the beginning of my time in the New Zealand Parliament, I’ve advocated for global climate action,” Ardern said in a statement. “My passion and sense of urgency on this issue has only increased over the last 15 years, especially as I witnessed f...

Abortion debate has dominated this election year. Here are Tuesday’s races to watch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most-watched races in Tuesday’s off-year general election have all been dominated by the ongoing debate over abortion rights.From a re-election bid for governor in Kentucky to a statewide ballot measure in Ohio to state legislative elections in Virginia, access to abortion has been a frequent topic in campaign debates and advertising, as it has since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in June last year overturning Roe vs. Wade.Here’s a look at three major races and how abortion has shaped each contest.Kentucky governorDemocratic Gov. Andy Beshear seeks a second term in a heavily Republican state Donald Trump carried twice. The GOP nominee is Daniel Cameron, who succeeded Beshear as state attorney general.Beshear has called the state’s restrictive abortion law “extremist” for not allowing exceptions in cases of rape and incest. He also vetoed a proposal banning abortions after 15 weeks. Cameron says he supports the state law and that as governor he...

South Korea plans to launch its 1st military spy satellite on Nov. 30

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Monday it plans to launch its first domestically built spy satellite at the end of this month to better monitor rival North Korea, as the North pushes to expand its arsenal of nuclear weapons targeting its adversaries.The plan was unveiled days after North Korea failed to follow through on its vow to make a third attempt to launch its own reconnaissance satellite in October, likely because of technical issues.Jeon Ha Gyu, a spokesperson for the South Korean Defense Ministry, told reporters Monday that the country’s first military spy satellite will be launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Nov. 30.The satellite will be carried by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Under a contract with SpaceX, South Korea plans to launch four more spy satellites by 2025, according to South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration.South Korea currently has no military reconnaissance satellites of its own and relies on U.S. spy satellites to...

Live updates | Israeli warplanes hit refugee camps in Gaza while UN agencies call siege an ‘outrage’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of people, health officials said. The strikes came as the U.S. keeps urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. On Saturday Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 9,700 with more than 4,000 of them children and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry i...

Trump’s business and political ambitions poised to converge as he testifies in New York civil case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump takes the stand Monday in a Manhattan courtroom to testify in his civil fraud trial, it will be an undeniable spectacle: A former president and the leading Republican presidential candidate defending himself against allegations that he dramatically inflated his net worth.The charges cut to the very heart of the brand Trump spent decades carefully crafting and put him at risk of losing control of much of his business empire.But the appearance may also mark the beginning of what will likely be a defining feature of the 2024 election if Trump becomes his party’s nominee: a major candidate, on trial, using the witness stand as a campaign platform as he eyes a return to the White House while facing multiple criminal indictments.“It’s going to be a stunning moment. This is dramatic enough if he was simply an ex-president facing these charges. But the fact that he is the overwhelming favorite to run the GOP, it makes this a staggering Monday,” said p...

Man accused of Antarctic assault was then sent to remote icefield with young graduate students

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A man accused of physically assaulting a woman at a U.S. research station in Antarctica was then sent to a remote icefield where he was tasked with protecting the safety of a professor and three young graduate students, and he remained there for a full week after a warrant for his arrest was issued, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.Stephen Tyler Bieneman has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault over the incident last November at McMurdo Station, which his lawyer said was nothing more than “horseplay.” The case is due to go to trial Monday in Honolulu.The National Science Foundation declined to answer AP questions about why Bieneman was sent out into the field in a critical safety role while under investigation. The case raises further questions about decision-making in the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is already under scrutiny. An AP investigation in August uncovered a pattern of women at McMurdo who said their claims of sexual har...

Why one survivor of domestic violence wants the Supreme Court to uphold a gun control law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ruth Glenn knows from harrowing personal experience the danger of putting a gun in the hands of a violent spouse or partner, the issue at the heart of a case before the Supreme Court.On a beautiful June evening in 1992, Glenn was shot three times, twice in the head, and left for dead outside a Denver car wash.The shooter was her estranged husband, Cedric, who was under a court order to stay away from Glenn. But there was no federal law on the books at the time that prohibited him from having a gun.Two years later, Congress put such a law in place, prohibiting people facing domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. “He would not have been able to access that gun if we had these current laws in place,” Glenn said in an interview with The Associated Press that took place outside the Supreme Court.The high court is hearing arguments Tuesday in a challenge to the 1994 law. The closely watched case is the first one involving guns to reach the justices since ...

Inspired by online dating, AI tool for adoption matchmaking falls short for vulnerable foster kids

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

Some are orphans, others seized from their parents. Many are older and have overwhelming needs or disabilities. Most bear the scars of trauma from being hauled between foster homes, torn from siblings or sexually and physically abused.Child protective services agencies have wrestled for decades with how to find lasting homes for such vulnerable children and teens – a challenge so enormous that social workers can never guarantee a perfect fit.Into this morass stepped Thea Ramirez with what she touted as a technological solution – an artificial intelligence-powered tool that ultimately can predict which adoptive families will stay together. Ramirez claimed this algorithm, designed by former researchers at an online dating service, could boost successful adoptions across the U.S. and promote efficiency at cash-strapped child welfare agencies.“We’re using science – not merely preferences – to establish a score capable of predicting long-term success,” Ramirez said in an April 2021 YouTu...

Can a Floridian win the presidency? It hasn’t happened yet as Trump and DeSantis vie to be first

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida governor wins reelection by record numbers and later finds himself running as a party conservative in a crowded presidential primary. In New Hampshire, he tip-toes around the explosive abortions rights issue, discusses ongoing Israeli military operations, promises he’ll secure the Mexican border and warns that the current administration’s fiscal insanity will cause more inflation, not reduce it.While it sounds like Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023, this was former Florida Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew in 1984. Askew dropped out of the race after finishing eighth in New Hampshire. DeSantis is looking to avoid a similar fate as he prepares for the third GOP debate this week in his home state.If DeSantis or former President Donald Trump eventually is elected president next year, it would be the first time Americans have chosen a Floridian to lead them. Trump was a New York snowbird with a second home in Palm Beach when he was first elec...

Does an AI tool help boost adoptions? Key takeaways from an AP Investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:23 GMT

Former social worker Thea Ramirez has developed an artificial intelligence -powered tool that she says helps social service agencies find the best adoptive parents for some of the nation’s most vulnerable kids. But an Associated Press investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results in the states where it has been used, raising questions about the ability of artificial intelligence to solve such enduring human problems. Two states dropped the tool with only a few adoptions at the end of their initial pilots. Social workers in Florida, Georgia and Virginia told AP that Family-Match wasn’t useful and often led them to unwilling families. Florida agencies, on the other hand, reported a more positive experience with the algorithm, saying that it assisted them in tapping into a broader pool of prospective parents. Ramirez declined interview requests but said in an email that “Family-Match is a valuable tool and helpful to users actively using it to sup...