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Belarusians who fled repression face new hurdles as they try to rebuild their lives abroad

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Andrei, a 29-year-old computer programmer who fled to Germany from Belarus two years ago amid a harsh crackdown on political dissent, is facing a serious dilemma.His Belarusian passport has expired, along with his German residence permit. But Belarus has stopped renewing passports at its embassies abroad under a new decree by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.“I have a terrible choice to make: become an illegal immigrant in Germany, or return to Belarus, where I will probably be arrested,” said Andrei, who asked to be identified only by his first name because he fears for his safety.Authorities in Minsk, he told The Associated Press, “managed to turn the life of Belarusians into hell even here.”An estimated 500,000 Belarusians fled to the West after Lukashenko was declared the winner of the 2020 election, which was widely seen as fraudulent. Many of them face having no valid documents after the Sept. 4 decree halted passport renewals.Human Rights Watc...

Hungary bans teenagers from visiting World Press Photo exhibition over display of LGBTQ+ images

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — People younger than 18 have been barred from visiting this year’s World Press Photo exhibition in Budapest, after Hungary’s right-wing populist government determined that some of its photos violate a contentious law restricting LGBTQ+ content.The prestigious global photo exhibition, on display in Hungary’s National Museum in Budapest, receives more than 4 million visitors from around the world every year. Showcasing outstanding photojournalism, its mission is to bring visual coverage of a range of important events to a global audience.But a set of five photos by Filipino photojournalist Hannah Reyes Morales led a far-right Hungarian lawmaker to file a complaint with the country’s cultural ministry, which found that they violate a Hungarian law that prohibits the display of LGBTQ+ content to minors.Now, even with parental consent, those under 18 are no longer allowed to visit the exhibition. The photographs, which document a community of eld...

Are the Abraham Accords stronger than the war between Israel and Hamas?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the UAE's Federal National Council’s Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee."We want everyone to acknowledge and accept that Israel is there to exist and that the roots of Jews, Christian are not in New York or Paris but here in our region. They are part of our history and they should be part of our future," said Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council, writes Yossi Lempkowicz."From the United Arab Emirates perspective, the Abraham Accords are there to stay," said Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE Federal National Council, who played a leading role in the 2020 accords which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries."This the third war in Gaza. Whenever there is something happening in Gaza, people come to us and ask: ‘What do you think of the Abraham Ac...

4 years since deadly Orinda Halloween party shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

ORINDA, Calif. (KRON) – Tuesday marks four years since a mass shooting at an Orinda house party left five people dead and several others injured. The families of the victims are still waiting for answers.A lawyer who represents some of the families says this holiday is no longer a time for celebration, but is instead filled with sadness and grieving their loved ones. Body found in suitcase floating in Lake Merritt Tuesday A woman named Michelle has lived in the neighborhood for six years. She says she still remembers that night.The house on Lucille Way near Knickerbocker Lane was rented for just one night through Airbnb. It’s estimated that more than 100 people were at the party prior to the shooting.“It was a little bit disturbing, but what made me feel better was the fact that these people weren’t residents here but Airbnb guests and it was an open invite where everybody showed up, so it wasn’t the community or Orinda,” Michelle said. Days after the shooting, Airbnb enacted...

The UK’s AI summit is taking place at Bletchley Park, the wartime home of codebreaking and computing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom is hosting the AI Safety Summit, bringing politicians, computer scientists and tech executives to a site chosen for its symbolism: Bletchley Park, synonymous with codebreaking and the birth of computing.During World War II, a group of mathematicians, cryptographers, crossword puzzlers, chess masters and other experts gathered at the Victorian country house 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of London to wage a secret war against Nazi Germany. Their goal: cracking Adolf Hitler’s supposedly unbreakable codes.Bletchley Park’s most famous feat was outwitting Germany’s Enigma encryption machine, which produced a constantly changing cipher and was widely considered unbreakable. To crack it, mathematician Alan Turing — building on work done by Polish codebreakers — developed the “Turing bombe,” a forerunner of modern computers.Deciphered Enigma messages revealed details of the movements of Germany’s U-boat fleets and provided crucial information for the Nor...

Japanese automaker Toyota’s profits zoom on cheap yen, strong global sales

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota’s July-September profit jumped nearly threefold from a year ago as vehicle sales grew around the world and a cheap yen boosted the Japanese automaker’s overseas earnings.Toyota Motor Corp. reported Wednesday 1.28 trillion yen ($8.5 billion) in quarterly profit, up from 434 billion yen the previous year. Quarterly sales rose 24% to 11.43 trillion yen ($75.7 billion) from 9.22 trillion yen. A cheap yen is a plus for Japan’s giant exporters like Toyota by raising the value of its overseas earnings when translated into yen. The U.S. dollar was trading at about 145 Japanese yen in the latest quarter, up from 138 yen. It’s trading above 150 yen lately. The manufacturer of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2024 to 3.95 trillion yen ($26 billion), up from the previous projection of 2.5 trillion yen.The forecast, if realized, marks an improvement from the previous fiscal year’s 2.45 trillion ...

Beijing’s crackdown fails to dim Hong Kong’s luster, as talent scheme lures mainland Chinese

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — The exodus of tens of thousands of professionals from Hong Kong triggered by a crackdown on its civil liberties is being offset by new arrivals: mainland Chinese keen to move to the former British colony. The Asian financial hub has attracted tens of thousands of visa applications from mainland Chinese under the Top Talent Pass Scheme, a program launched in late 2022 aimed at luring high-income professionals and top global university graduates from around the world, though nine in 10 successful applicants are from China. For mainland Chinese, Hong Kong’s unique attributes — such as wider freedom of speech and internet access, its cosmopolitan ambiance, a less oppressive work culture, and a society where ability largely trumps connections — set it apart, according to interviews by The Associated Press with 20 mainland Chinese visa holders. Some, like Wu, a finance professional in his 20s, view moving to Hong Kong as a way to gain greater freedom and security. Wu, who...

Stock market today: Asian shares track Wall Street gains ahead of Fed decision on interest rates

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday after Wall Street advanced to claim back some of the ground it gave up in another losing month. Investors are awaiting a decision later Wednesday by the Federal Reserve on interest rates and updates on the state of the U.S. economy. The overwhelming expectation is that the Fed will keep its overnight interest rate steady. The bigger question is how long it will keep that main rate high. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 2.4% to 31,601.65 a day after the Bank of Japan held back from any major changes to its near-zero interest rate policy, though it adjusted its controls on government bond yields.The dollar weakened against the Japanese yen, trading at 151.28 yen. It jumped on Tuesday after the Japanese central bank’s decision. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng edged less than 0.1% higher, to 17,126.70. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.1% to 3,023.08. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1% to 2,301.56 and the S&P/ASX ...

Gaza’s phone and internet connections are cut off again, as Israeli troops battle Hamas militants

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians reported another widespread outage of internet and phone service in Gaza early Wednesday, hours after Israeli airstrikes leveled apartment buildings near Gaza City and as ground troops battled Hamas militants inside the besieged territory.The Palestinian telecoms company Paltel reported a “complete disruption” of internet and mobile phone services in Gaza, marking the second time in five days that residents were largely cut off from the world. Communications also went down over the weekend, as Israeli troops pushed into Gaza in larger numbers. Humanitarian aid agencies have warned that such blackouts severely disrupt their work in an already dire situation in Gaza, where more than half of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians has been displaced and basic supplies are running low more than three weeks into the war triggered by Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel.Attempts to reach Gaza residents by phone were unsuccessful ...

Australia cannot strip citizenship from man over his terrorism convictions, top court says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:20 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s highest court on Wednesday overturned a government decision to strip citizenship from a man convicted of terrorism.The ruling is a second blow in the High Court to the law introduced almost a decade ago that allows a government minister to strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship on extremism-related grounds.The ruling also prevents the government from deporting Algerian-born cleric Abdul Benbrika when he is released from prison, which is expected within weeks.The High Court judges ruled 6-1 that the law that gave the home affairs minister power to strip citizenship in such instances was unconstitutional. The majority found that the minister was effectively exercising a judicial function of punishing criminal guilt.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would examine the ruling in regards to the law passed by the previous government.Constitutional lawyer George Williams said he was not surprised by the result.“It’s a fu...