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Eastern European COP summit in limbo over Russian blockade

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

BONN, Germany — Geopolitical tensions have cast doubt on whether Eastern Europe can host next year’s global climate conference. The five U.N. regional groups take turns hosting the COP summit each year, and 2024 should be Eastern Europe’s turn — but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has resulted in a stalemate. The EU has supported Bulgaria’s candidacy, but amid the war in Ukraine, Moscow has vowed to block any EU country from hosting. The regional group has to decide by consensus. On Wednesday night, a last round of talks to break the impasse at preparatory climate talks held in Bonn ended without agreement, according to three people close to the negotiations who were granted anonymity as they’re not cleared to discuss the negotiations publicly.That means the question of where next year’s COP takes place has to be resolved at this year’s climate summit in Dubai, giving the ne...

Closing arguments begin in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

(CNN) — Closing arguments began Thursday morning in the trial of the gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.Robert Bowers, 50, has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. If convicted of any of 22 capital charges, the trial will move to a separate penalty phase, in which the same jury will listen to further evidence and decide whether to sentence him to death.The case stems from the mass shooting on October 27, 2018, in which Bowers stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood and killed 11 people and wounded six others.Prosecutors called 60 witnesses over more than two weeks to make the case that Bowers carried out the shooting because of his hatred for Jewish people, citing a series of antisemitic comments before, during and after the mass shooting, online and in person. The gunman stated matter-of-fact...

Biden to announce Live Nation and Ticketmaster will allow consumers to see all fees up front

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

(CNN) — President Joe Biden will announce Thursday that entertainment giant Live Nation (LYV) and ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster have pledged to give US consumers the ability to see the full price of tickets up front, minimizing the frequently frustrating experience of watching additional fees add up late in the checkout process when buying online.The announcement comes amid increased pressure on the industry from debacles over exorbitant ticketing fees and as the president has urged Congress to pass legislation targeting other hidden costs paid by consumers throughout the economy. It marks Biden’s latest effort to address kitchen table issues as economic concerns remain top of mind for voters heading into the 2024 election.“President Biden has been working to lower costs for hardworking families by bringing down inflation, capping insulin prices for seniors, and eliminating hidden junk fees,” said National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard in a written st...

Bud Light, America’s top beer for decades, falls to second following LGBTQ+ marketing criticism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

By DEE-ANN DURBIN (AP Business Writer)After more than two decades as America’s best-selling beer, Bud Light has slipped into second place.Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager, overtook Bud Light in U.S. retail dollar sales in the month ending June 3, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting. Modelo controlled 8.4% of U.S. grocery, convenience and liquor store sales; Bud Light fell to 7.3%. Grupo Modelo, the Mexican brewer, is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the same parent company of Bud Light.It’s a milestone in Bud Light’s months-long sales decline since early April, when critics who were angered by the brewer sending a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney vowed to boycott the brand. Bud Light has also faced backlash from Mulvaney’s fans, who think the brand didn’t do enough to support her.Dave William, Bump Williams’ vice president of analytics and insights, said Bud Light has been the top-selling U.S. bee...

Closings arguments set in trial of gunman in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Closings arguments were set to get underway Thursday in the federal trial of a truck driver who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jews.Robert Bowers is charged with 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. Some of the charges carry a potential death sentence.Bowers’ attorneys did not call any witnesses or present any evidence after conceding at the trial’s outset that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. Seven people were injured in the attack, including five responding police officers.Prosecutors say the 50-year-old was motivated by his hatred of Jewish people. Over 11 days of testimony, jurors learned that Bowers had extensively posted, shared or liked antisemitic and white supremacist content on Gab, a social media platform popular with the far right.The defense ...

Supreme Court preserves law that aims to keep Native American children with tribal families

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved the system that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children, rejecting a broad attack from Republican-led states and white families who argued it is based on race.The court left in place the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native homes.Tribal leaders have backed the law as a means of preserving their families, traditions and cultures.The “issues are complicated” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for a seven-justice majority, but the “bottom line is that we reject all of petitioners’ challenges to the statute.”Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, with Alito writing that the decision “disserves the rights and interests of these children.”Congress passed the law in response to the alarming rate at which Native American and A...

Suspect in mass shooting at Colorado gay nightclub is expected to take a plea deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub is expected to strike a plea deal to state murder and hate charges that would ensure at least a life sentence for the attack that killed five people and wounded 17, several survivors told The Associated Press. Word of a possible legal resolution of last year’s Club Q massacre follows a series of jailhouse phone calls from the suspect to the AP expressing remorse and the intention to face the consequences at the next scheduled court hearing this month.“I have to take responsibility for what happened,” 23-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich said in their first public comments about the case. Federal and state authorities and defense attorneys declined to comment on a possible plea deal. But Colorado law requires victims to be notified of such deals, and several people who lost loved ones or were wounded in the attack told the AP that state prosecutors have given them advance word that Aldrich w...

Stock market today: Wall Street keeps drifting higher to extend winning streak

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting higher Thursday after a messy mix of economic reports yielded no clear sign about where the economy and inflation are heading.The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in morning trading, coming off its highest level since April 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 178 points, or 0.5%, at 34,157, as of 10:40 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.Homebuilder Lennar helped lead the S&P 500 with a gain of 3.5% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It also gave a stronger-than-expected forecast for upcoming deliveries, saying customers are accepting the “new normal” of higher interest rates. Kroger, meanwhile, sank to one of the market’s sharper losses after reporting slightly weaker revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It fell 4.7% despite also reporting stronger profit than expected and reaffirming many of its financial forecasts for the year. The stock market is sti...

Russia summons Canadian envoy in Moscow over ‘undisguised robbery’ of cargo plane

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

OTTAWA — Moscow has again summoned Canada’s top diplomat in Russia, this time over the Trudeau government’s seizure of a massive Russian cargo plane.Russia says it has summoned Canadian chargé d’affaires Brian Ebel to tell him that Ottawa’s plans risk “the most serious repercussions.”It comes two days after Moscow warned relations with Canada were “on the verge of being severed” over the issue, and three months after the Kremlin summoned the same diplomat over Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly’s remarks about regime change in Russia.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Kyiv, Ukraine, on the weekend, where he announced that Canada officially seized an airplane that had been sitting on the tarmac at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport since February 2022.In an English-language statement posted Thursday, Moscow says the move “amounts to an attempt at undisguised robbery” and that the plane has been “seized i...

Zimbabwe reports record tobacco sales, mostly to China, yet many farmers deep in debt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:46 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has reported record tobacco sales as the southern African nation reestablishes itself as one of the leading growers in the world, and yet the small-scale Black farmers now selling their crop mostly to China are “heavily indebted” and seeing “minimal” benefits, according to an association that represents their interests.Critics say the farmers are not benefitting as they should from Zimbabwe’s tobacco boom, largely because of a contract system that locks them into unfavorable loans and prices, often with Chinese companies operating under the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation, the largest cigarette maker in the world.China buys most of Zimbabwe’s tobacco to feed its huge market. While other companies and local merchants are also involved in the contract system in Zimbabwe, it is dominated by Chinese firms and their agents.The Zimbabwean government announced Wednesday that the country, Africa’s top producer and...