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Turkey’s longtime president to face down main rival in runoff as uncertainty looms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

By SUZAN FRASER and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY (Associated Press)ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Conservative Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a runoff with his main rival in two weeks that will decide who leads a country struggling with sky-high inflation and hosting Syrian refugees as it plays a key role in the Middle East and in NATO expansion.Election officials said Monday that the May 28 second round will allow Turks to decide if their nation remains under the increasingly authoritarian president’s firm grip for a third decade, or if it can embark on the more democratic course that Kemal Kilicdaroglu has claimed he can deliver.The vote shows how Turkey has become extremely polarized, some voters commented. “I am not happy at all,” voter Suzan Devletsah said. “I worry about the future of Turkey.” Erdogan faced electoral headwinds due to a cost-of-living crisis and criticism over the government’s response to a devastating February earthquake. But...

What to watch: Clues about voter sentiment could emerge from Kentucky, Pennsylvania primaries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

By Bruce Schreiner, Associated PressLOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Off-year elections on Tuesday in Kentucky and Pennsylvania could send early signals about the mood of voters ahead of next year’s races for the White House and Congress.The Kentucky governor’s race is a table-setter for what should be a bruising general election contest. Republican voters will settle on a nominee to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who has enjoyed high approval ratings but will have to fend off a GOP challenge in a state Republicans usually dominate. Two candidates with ties to former President Donald Trump are contenders in a 12-candidate field.A special legislative race in the Philadelphia suburbs could determine whether Democrats retain a one-vote majority in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives, and the outcome could demonstrate how voters are feeling in a crucial region of a swing presidential state. Both parties will choose nominees for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and Philadelph...

Elementary teachers union says violence ‘normalized’ in schools, blames Ford government

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

The union representing elementary school teachers in Ontario says violence is being “normalized” in schools and it’s not shy about playing the blame game — pointing the finger directly at Doug Ford’s government for the deteriorating situation.That message from the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) came on the heels of a disturbing survey released Monday that revealed 77 per cent of ETFO members have experienced or witnessed violence against another staff member.The survey was conducted in February and March, 2023.According to ETFO, the escalating violence is a direct result of chronic underfunding by the Ford government.“Learning is being disrupted and violence is being normalized in schools because the Ford government refuses to adequately invest in public education,” ETFO President Karen Brown said in a release.“The system is suffering from chronic underfunding, under-resourcing, and understaffing, creating environmen...

Sheriff: 2 dead, 4 injured in shooting at Georgia motorcycle club event

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Two people were killed and four were injured when more than 150 shots were fired in a gun fight between rival motorcycle clubs in a Georgia city, a sheriff said Monday.The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office charged 12 people with murder and aggravated assault in the gunfight in Augusta on Saturday night, including the four injured people, Sheriff Richard Roundtree said.The violence erupted at a clubhouse of one of the motorcycle groups in a largely residential area, the sheriff said. Deputies recovered more than 150 spent shell casings, he said, some of them found a block away.“With the amount of firepower and carnage we saw at the scene, this could have been a much more horrific event,” Roundtree said during a news conference Monday.Investigators believe the gunfight stemmed from a prior confrontation between members of the two rival clubs in Florida, said Roundtree, who declined to provide details.Of the 12 people arrested, he said, 11 came from out o...

Luxury brand Cartier criticized for using images of Amazon tribe devastated by gold mining

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

BOA VISTA, Brazil (AP) — Until two months ago, Cartier’s website showed Yanomami children playing in a green field.The French luxury jewelry brand said it was working to promote the culture of the Indigenous people and protect the rainforest where they live, in a vast territory straddling Brazil and Venezuela. But the project that the site described protecting the Amazon never took place. And Cartier published the photo without the approval of Yanomami leadership, violating the beliefs of a people who had been living in almost total isolation until they were contacted by outsiders in the 1970s.Some of the Yanomami and their defenders praise Cartier’s promotion of Yanomami causes. However, advertising by one of the world’s biggest jewelers with images of an Indigenous people devastated by illegal gold mining has some complaining of greenwashing, a corporation promoting its own image by supporting a cause.“How can a gold jewelry company, which we, the Yanomami people, are against, use...

New beverage fee rollout delayed, but retail group says producers should absorb fee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

TORONTO — Grocery industry advocates say new rules to make companies pay to recycle packaging they put into the market in Ontario could simply shift costs from communities to consumers in the coming months. They say beverage companies have issued notices to retailers about a new container recycling fee on products ranging from milk and yogurt to juice and pop. The fee, about three cents a bottle on average, was expected to take effect June 1.But an independent grocers’ group says the Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association has now delayed passing the fee on to grocers — which they say would raise retail prices — until at least July 31.Gary Sands, senior vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, says beverage companies should be absorbing the costs themselves and not passing it on to consumers. Still, he welcomes the delay given the ongoing high inflation on food in Canada. “It’s not just this fee. It’s these myriad other pric...

Eyeing new global record, Nigerian chef cooks for nearly 100 hours

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian chef on Monday continued her quest to set a new global record for the longest hours of nonstop cooking as she cooked for nearly 100 hours, surpassing the current record.Hilda Baci has been cooking since last week Thursday when she set out to beat the Guinness World Record of 87 hours and 45 minutes set in 2019 by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef.By 15:00 GMT on Monday, Baci had cooked for more than 97 hours in the Lekki area of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to become a national sensation in the West African nation. Many at the scene and online cheered her on to reach the 100-hour mark.No one from Guinness World Records was present at the scene but the organization tweeted it was aware of the chef’s attempt to break the cooking record. “We need to review all the evidence first before officially confirming a record,” the global brand said.By attempting to beat the record, the Nigerian chef said Thursday she wanted to show how hardworking and determ...

St. Louis prosecutor seeks to free man imprisoned 33 years for murder, citing evidence of innocence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis’ top prosecutor has asked a court to set aside the conviction of a man who has spent 33 years in prison for a killing he says he didn’t commit, after witnesses who testified against him later said authorities had pressured them to lie.In her request to overturn Christopher Dunn’s first-degree murder conviction, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner cited “clear and convincing evidence” that he had not been involved in the 1990 shooting death of Ricco Rogers.“We are hopeful his wrongful conviction is set aside for the sake of Mr. Dunn, his family, and the people of the City of St. Louis,” Gardner said in a statement Monday.Gardner filed a motion with St. Louis Circuit Court on Friday to vacate Dunn’s conviction. It wasn’t immediately clear if the state attorney general’s office would oppose the motion. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Andrew Bailey didn’t immediately respond to a Monday request for comment.Gardne...

Nebraska conservatives gamble on combining abortion, trans health bans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Conservative Nebraska lawmakers are taking what could be an all-or-nothing bet by proposing to merge two of the legislative session’s most contentious proposals — one to restrict abortion and another that would ban gender-affirming care for minors. The unconventional move follows conservatives’ failure by a single vote last month to advance a bill that would have banned abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy. Now, conservatives are backing an effort to amend the transgender health bill to include restricting abortion to 12 weeks of gestation. The strategy sets up a vote on Tuesday that could give conservatives a win on both abortion and trans health bans this year — or could see them lose both.Here’s a look at the combination of the trans and abortion bans proposals and how the process of debating and voting on them is expected to play out this week:___HOW THE NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE WORKS:Nebraska has the only one-chamber, nonpartisan Legislature in the c...

Renew North American trade deal to defend democratic values: U.S. chamber CEO

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:25 GMT

WASHINGTON — Business leaders from across North America are gathered in the U.S. capital to talk about maximizing the continent’s competitive advantages.The future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has been an especially hot topic at the North American Business Summit. U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark says it’s vital for North America’s economy that the agreement survive a scheduled review in 2026. That’s because like democracy, free trade is under attack around the world, she says — and the USMCA is its current standard-bearer. Clark says USMCA is also a critical weapon against protectionist economic policies, which are growing more common around the world, including in the U.S. and Mexico.  Blanca Treviño, president and CEO of Mexico-based digital solutions firm SoftTek, says she expects the deal to be renewed, but not without a fight. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2023.The Canadian Press