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The World Food Program slowly resumes food aid to Ethiopia after months of suspension and criticism

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations World Food Program is slowly resuming food aid to Ethiopia nearly five months after taking the extraordinary measure of suspending aid to millions of people after the discovery of a massive scheme to steal donated grain. WFP said it’s testing small-scale distribution in some areas but acknowledges that the government still plays a role in the process.Critics of the aid suspension, including aid groups and health workers, have called it immoral and alleged that hundreds of people have died of hunger. The United States, however, says its own suspension of food aid to the East African country will continue while it negotiates with Ethiopia’s government for reforms of a system long controlled by local authorities.The pause has affected 20 million Ethiopians — 1/6 of the population — plus 800,000 refugees.In a written response Monday evening to questions, the WFP told The Associated Press that the agency has started distributing wheat to aro...

Russian missiles kill 7 in Ukrainian city and Kyiv accuses Moscow of targeting rescue workers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from two Russian missile strikes that hit apartment blocks and other buildings in an eastern Ukrainian city climbed to seven, with 81 people injured, authorities said Tuesday, as officials accused the Kremlin’s forces of targeting rescue workers.Two Russian missiles slammed into the downtown area of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region that is partially occupied by Russia, on Monday evening, officials said.The dead were five civilians, one rescuer and one soldier, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. The wounded were 39 civilians, including two children; 31 police officers; seven emergency workers; and four soldiers.The Iskander missiles, which have an advanced guidance system that increases their accuracy, hit within 40 minutes of each other, according to Kyrylenko.Russia has since the start of the war aimed artillery and missiles at the exact same spot it struck around 30 minutes earlier, often hitting emergency workers who had deployed a...

South Korea evacuates thousands of Scouts from coastal campsite as tropical storm nears

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Carrying huge backpacks and water bottles, tens of thousands of Scouts began arriving at university dormitories, government and corporate training centers, and hotels around Seoul and other inland cities on Tuesday afternoon as the South Korean government evacuated the World Scout Jamboree ahead of a tropical storm. The South Korean government had scrambled to keep the 12-day gathering of Scouts going in the face of struggles with heat, hygiene and land use controversies, as thousands of British and American Scouts departed over the weekend. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that officials announced the decision to abandon the coastal campsite in the southwestern town of Buan, after forecasters raised alarms that Tropical Storm Khanun was heading toward the Korean Peninsula. The 37,000 Scouts, who hailed from 156 countries and were mostly teenagers, folded up their tents before boarding over 1,000 vehicles for the evacuation. Officials say 656 vehicles have ...

Biden will announce a historic Grand Canyon monument designation during his Arizona visit

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

TUSAYAN, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden will use his visit to Arizona on Tuesday to formally announce a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, making Native American tribes’ and environmentalists’ decades-long vision to preserve the land a reality. Biden is expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve about 1,562 square miles (4,046 square kilometers) just outside Grand Canyon National Park, national climate adviser Ali Zaidi confirmed. It will mark the Democratic president’s fifth monument designation.Tribes in Arizona have been pushing Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create a new national monument called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. “Baaj Nwaavjo” means “where tribes roam,” for the Havasupai people, while “I’tah Kukveni” translates to “our footprints,” for the Hopi tribe.Tribes and environmentalists for decades have been trying to safeguard the land north and south of Grand Canyon Nationa...

Son of Spanish actors is arrested in Thailand on suspicion of killing Colombian on a tourist island

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The son of two Spanish film stars has been arrested in Thailand on suspicion of murdering and dismembering a Colombian surgeon on a tourist island, police said.Daniel Sancho Bronchalo was taken from Koh Phagnan, where the remains of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga were found, to another island, Samui, where he is being held, Surat Thani provincial police commander Saranyu Chamnanrat said Tuesday.Sancho, a chef with a YouTube channel, has been charged with premeditated murder, which carries a possible death penalty, and with concealment of a body to cover up the death, Saranyu said.Details of the killing emerged last week when Thai media reported that plastic bags containing body parts of a man, later identified by police as Arrieta, were found at a landfill on Koh Phagnan, an island famous for its monthly “full moon parties.”Police said Sancho came in to report a missing person after the body parts were found and was subsequently detained. He later confessed to killing and dism...

As hazing scandal plays out at Northwestern, some lawyers say union for athletes might have helped

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — As Northwestern became engulfed in a hazing scandal in recent weeks, Michelle Simpson Tuegel thought about the athletes she represented in high-profile lawsuits.The Dallas-based attorney helped negotiate about $900 million in settlements in cases involving U.S. Olympic and national team gymnasts who were sexually assaulted under the guise of medical exams by sports physician Larry Nassar and by former athletes at Michigan who were victimized by the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson.Simpson Tuegel said she sees common threads with the situation at Northwestern. And she can’t help but wonder: What if college athletes had a union? “It’s bigger than one university,” Simpson Tuegel said. “It’s bigger than one survivor who has been abused or even just one team. It is a deeply ingrained cultural issue and the product often of long-term institutional negligence.”A decade after Northwestern was at the center of an attempt to establish the first college athletes union, the univ...

‘Satan Wants You’ doc is a cautionary tale as satanic panic history repeats itself

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

It’s a tale that has been repeated throughout history: Satan-worshippers steal children to use and abuse them in elaborate rituals. The myth cycle was in full swing when filmmakers Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor embarked on their latest documentary, “Satan Wants You,” an exploration of the Canadian roots of the so-called “satanic panic” of the 1980s and ’90s. The film is set for theatrical release Friday and premiered at South by Southwest earlier this year, but the documentarians began work on the project in 2018, when QAnon conspiracy theories had taken hold among a subset of the population. “It was: ‘Oh no, here we go again. I can’t believe we’re looking at this in 1980, and it’s happening right now,'” Horlor said during a recent video call. “It’s still happening.” The parallels were stark. Some QAnon supporters falsely believe former U.S. president Donald Trump was fighting to expose a grou...

Court blocks new rules aiming to expand student debt relief for defrauded borrowers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

(The Hill) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Monday blocked new rules implemented by the Department of Education that aimed to make it easier for defrauded borrowers to get access to student debt relief. The conservative three-judge panel granted the injunction in favor of Career Colleges and Schools of Texas (CCST) until the case is heard on appeal in November. CCST is a for-profit group that represents trade schools and for-profit colleges in Texas. The group sued the Department of Education after it released new rules that make it easier for students defrauded by their schools to get debt relief. The department has long had a borrower defense program available to individuals with student loans who believe they were defrauded by their institutions, which most commonly involves for-profit schools. The new rules include barring schools from forcing students to sign mandatory arbitration agreements and borrowers getting automatic student debt relief a year ...

Black defendant to receive new trial after white judge said he 'looks like a criminal'

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

(The Hill) - A Black defendant has received a new trial in a Michigan court after a district judge, who is white, said that the defendant “looks like a criminal.” The Washington Post reported that in a 3-0 decision, an appeals court panel of judges ruled to overturn Leron Liggins’s 2021 drug conviction and the decade-long prison sentence he was serving on the matter, giving Liggins the opportunity to seek a new trial. The panel also ruled that the previous remarks made by U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III in a January 2020 hearing “could be understood to demonstrate clear prejudgment of Liggins’ guilt.”Murphy, who was appointed by former president George W. Bush, expressed his frustration with presiding over Liggins, as the defendant moved to switch attorneys twice. Murphy, who presided over Liggins's case for two years at the time, said he was “tired of getting the runaround.”Liggins was indicted by a federal grand jury in Michigan on one count of conspiracy to possess...

Overnight fire burns carport and shed in Lago Vista

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:48:19 GMT

LAGO VISTA, Texas (KXAN) – The Travis County Fire Marshall's Office is investigating a fire that damaged a carport and shed early Tuesday morning in a Lago Vista neighborhood, according to Travis County Emergency Services District 1.Crews from ESD 1 were called to the scene on Coyote Trail just after 12:30 a.m. Fire crews at fire in Lago Vista on August 8, 2023. (Courtesy: Travis County ESD 1)ESD 1 told KXAN the fire was contained to the carport and a large shed with a built-in bedroom, and one person was inside the home next to the carport but police were able to get the person out safely. According to ESD 1, the homeowner lived in Minnesota and said the home should have been vacant. It was not known why the person was inside the home. Fire crews at fire in Lago Vista on August 8, 2023. (Courtesy: Travis County ESD 1)ESD 1 said no one was hurt in the fire.