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Under pressure over border, Biden admin grants protection to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday that it was granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are already in the country as it grapples with growing numbers of people fleeing the South American country and elsewhere to arrive at the U.S. border with Mexico.The move — along with promises to accelerate work permits for many migrants — may appease Democratic leaders who have pressured the White House to do more to aid asylum-seekers, while also providing grist for Republicans who say the president has been too lax on immigration.The Homeland Security Department plans to grant Temporary Protected Status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the country as of July 31, 2023, making it easier for them to get authorization to work in the U.S., a key demand of Democratic mayors and governors who are struggling to care for an increased number of migrants in their care.That’s in addition to about 242,700 Venezuelans who alr...

Ukraine, Russia and the tense UN encounter that almost happened – but didn’t

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — It was a moment the diplomatic world was watching for — but didn’t get. In the end, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov avoided staring each other down Wednesday across the U.N. Security Council’s famous horseshoe-shaped table. Zelenskyy left before Lavrov arrived.The near-miss was somewhat to be expected. Yet the moment still spoke to the U.N.’s role as a venue where warring nations can unleash their ire through words instead of weapons. The choreography also underscored the world body’s reputation as a place where adversaries sometimes literally talk past each other. Zelenskyy denounced Russia as “a terrorist state” while Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia sat facing him near the other end of the table’s arc. As Zelenskyy launched into his remarks, the Russian looked at his phone, then tucked the device away. Zelenskyy left before Lavrov’s arrival, which came as U.S. Secretary...

MGM Resorts computers back up after 10 days as analysts eye effects of casino cyberattacks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — MGM Resorts brought to an end a 10-day computer shutdown prompted by efforts to shield from a cyberattack data including hotel reservations and credit card processing, the casino giant said Wednesday, as analysts and academics measured the effects of the event.“We are pleased that all of our hotels and casinos are operating normally,” the Las Vegas-based company posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. It reported last week that the attack was detected Sept. 10.Rival casino owner Caesars Entertainment also disclosed last week to federal regulators that it was hit by a cyberattack Sept. 7. It said that its casino and online operations were not disrupted but it could not guarantee that personal information about tens of millions of customers, including driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers of loyalty rewards members, had not been compromised. Caesars, based in Reno, is widely reported to have paid $15 million of a $30 million ransom sought by a gro...

As writers and studios resume negotiations, here are the key players in the Hollywood strikes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Negotiations between striking screenwriters and Hollywood studios have resumed and will continue Thursday, the latest attempt to bring an end to pickets that have brought film and television productions to a halt.The two sides have been divided on issues of pay, the size of writing staffs on shows and the use of artificial intelligence in how scripts are created. Actors, who joined the writers on strike in July, have their own issues but there have been no discussions about resuming negotiations with their union yet.The key players in the two strikes that have brought Hollywood to a halt include little-known leaders, labor lawyers, entertainment tycoons and the actor who played “The Nanny.”Here’s a look at the figures who brought on the walk-off of actors and screenwriters, and who have the power to send them back to work:CAROL LOMBARDINIHer name is little known outside the industry, and she nearly never speaks to the media, but as head of the opposition in ...

Jimmy Lai’s son fears Hong Kong media mogul may die in detention while awaiting trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai said Wednesday he did not want to see his father die in detention, as his lawyers raised the prospect that his long-delayed trial may be pushed back indefinitely.Sebastien Lai also slammed the U.K. government for its “shameful” lack of action in helping his father, who is a British national.Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has been in detention since he was arrested in 2020 under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing. The Hong Kong businessman faces up to life in prison if convicted. He has already been sentenced to five years and nine months in a separate case.His trial was originally set to begin last December, but it has been delayed several times by judges. It is now due to start on Dec. 18.His son Sebastien Lai, 28, and his lawyers have described the case as a “show trial.” They suggested that Hong Kong auth...

Bill for preserving site of Wounded Knee massacre in South Dakota passes U.S. House

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to preserve the site of the Wounded Knee massacre — one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history — cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. The Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act, introduced by Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota in May, passed the House by voice vote. The Senate is considering companion legislation.More than 200 Native Americans — including children and elderly people — were killed at Wounded Knee in 1890. The bloodshed marked a seminal moment in the frontier battles the U.S. Army waged against tribes. The Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes joined together last year to purchase about 40 acres around the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark in South Dakota to ensure the area was preserved as a sacred site. Leaders of both tribes testified in support of the House bill, which would put federal protections on the land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.Oglala Sioux Tribe President F...

Nevada pardons board will now consider requests for posthumous pardons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s pardons board will now consider requests for posthumous pardons in a limited scope, nearly six years after it voted to freeze such applications amid a backlog in cases.The nine-member board voted unanimously Wednesday to begin accepting petitions for posthumous relief, but only those sponsored by a member of the board will be eligible for consideration.The board consists of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, Democratic state Attorney General Aaron Ford and the state’s Supreme Court justices.Chief Justice Lidia Stiglich said Wednesday that she brought the matter before the board, in part, because of Tonja Brown, an advocate for prisoners who routinely speaks at meetings to bring attention to her late brother’s case.“At the very least,” Stiglich said, Brown’s “tenacity deserves a discussion about whether or not we’re going to hear” posthumous cases.Brown believes her brother, Nolan Klein, was wrongly convicted in 1988 of a sexual assault an...

An Idaho man has measles. Health officials are trying to see if the contagious disease has spread.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

An Idaho man has contracted measles, and health officials are working to contact anyone who may have been exposed to the highly contagious disease. The man was unvaccinated, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said in a news release Wednesday afternoon, and he was exposed during international travel. He was hospitalized for a time but is now recovering at home.“Measles is very rare in Idaho and in the United States now, largely due to mass vaccination,” said Dr. Christine Hahn, the medical director of the Idaho Division of Public Health. Just three cases have been reported in the state in the past two decades. “It’s not something we see very commonly, but when we do see it we worry about spread in pockets of people who are not vaccinated. For those of us who are vaccinated, we don’t have to worry about it,” she said. People with measles become infectious about four days before symptoms begin, Hahn said. During his infectious period, the Idaho man spent time at the...

Oklahoma man's life saved by the same medical device he helped develop

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Heart rhythm devices have saved countless lives – including the life of one of the men who helped develop the technology. "I was the recipient of the pacemaker that I had developed more than 50 years before," Dr. Benjamin Scherlag, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, told Nexstar's KFOR.  OK AG sues pharmaceutical company, saying it’s partially to blame for the state’s opioid crisis After being drafted and serving our country, he began working in a field close to his own heart – literally. "At the time, it wasn't called electrophysiology, they were just cardiac physiology," Scherlag recounted. In the 1960s, he worked to further that technology at Columbia University and hospitals in New York."What we did was we developed a catheter technique," Scherlag said. "Within two years there were 720 citations of that work where usually there would be about 14 or 20 citations, so it became a part of ... what we called the cornerstone of the clinical...

Allianz Field developer receives go-ahead from St. Paul City Council hearing concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:38 GMT

Representatives of the development team behind United Village — the long-planned real estate surrounding the Allianz Field soccer stadium in St. Paul’s Midway — received preliminary approval from the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday to move forward with their scaled-down vision, but not before hearing concerns from council members.“I’m looking to reset the relationship that the developer has had with the community over the last few years,” Council Member Mitra Jalali told the development team. “Community members have expressed a lot of feelings of surprise or dissatisfaction” as news about planned real estate emerges through the media or another source, without a direct line of communication with the neighborhood district councils, she said.The council voted 5-0 on Wednesday to approve a preliminary plat for the next phase of development surrounding the stadium, which is expected to include a four-story office building, a hotel, a pl...