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Olympic sports leaders meet amid uncertainty over Russians competing at 2024 Paris Games

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Olympic sports bodies meet Wednesday amid ongoing uncertainty about if and how Russian athletes could return to their competitions ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.The annual meeting of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) comes more than two months after the IOC detailed advice on how individual athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus could be reintegrated as neutral athletes.Exactly how that neutrality is being defined is not very much clearer now as key qualification events start for the Olympics that open in July next year. The International Olympic Committee in March advised that some Russians and Belarusians could return in individual events but not team sports, if they had not actively supported the war in Ukraine, and are not contracted to “military or national security agencies.” The IOC also suggested ASOIF and the winter sports umbrella group, AIOWF, could oversee “creating a single independent panel” to ...

Top Russian official says British politicians now a legitimate military target

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

LONDON — British politicians are now a legitimate military target for Moscow, a senior Russian official said, after the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly argued Ukraine has the right to use force within Russian borders.Speaking in Estonia Tuesday, Cleverly said Ukraine “has a right” to project force “beyond its own borders” as part of its self-defense, following a series of drone strikes that hit Moscow’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The U.K. minister argued that Kyiv striking inside Russia would “undermine” the Kremlin’s ability to continue its war in Ukraine, which has officially denied responsibility for the attack.Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, hit back on Wednesday arguing that the U.K. is “de facto leading an undeclared war against Russia” by supplying Ukraine with military aid and specialists.“That being the case, any of its public officials (either military, or civil, who facilitate the war) can be consider...

Netherlands fears Chinese cyberattacks in chips battle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

The Netherlands is concerned about Chinese cyberattacks, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said, weeks after The Hague introduced export restrictions on advanced microchips technology to China.“Domestic interference, but also […] cyberattacks stemming from Chinese soil, is something about which we are increasingly worried,” Hoekstra told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.Hoekstra’s concerns echo reports from the Dutch intelligence services, which label countries with “cyberattack programs” including China as posing a “massive threat.”The Netherlands is home to ASML, a keystone for global chips production and the only company outside the U.S. and Japan that is able to produce the printers needed to manufacture advanced semiconductors. The firm has faced intellectual property theft incidents linked to China in the past. In February it said a China-based former employee stole data about its machinery, and in 2019 it revealed it had been the victim of ...

Typhoon Mawar losing strength as it heads toward Japan’s Okinawa Islands

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

NAHA, Japan (AP) — Typhoon Mawar appeared to be losing force as it headed Wednesday toward Japan’s Okinawa Islands, where the United States maintains a significant military presence, after largely skirting Taiwan and the Philippines. After tearing across Guam last week, Mawar passed by Taiwan on Tuesday with sustained winds of 155 kph (96 mph) and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph), sending high waves crashing on the island’s east coast. In the Philippines, authorities said heavy rains were expected to continue in the country’s north through at least Thursday and warned of flooding, possible landslides and gale-force winds before the typhoon exits the country’s area of responsibility. As it turns toward the Japanese islands of Okinawa, Philippine meteorological authorities said Mawar’s strength had dropped with sustained winds now of 120 kmh (75 mph) and gusts of up to 150 kmh (93 mph). Mawar is expected to gradually pick up speed but steadily weaken and ...

Latvia’s Parliament elects new head of state from 3 candidates in unpredictable vote

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — Latvian lawmakers are set to elect a new head of state on Wednesday from a field of three candidates with no clear favorite.The Baltic nation’s 100-seat Saeima legislature will choose a president to serve for a four-year term. Entrepreneur and businessman Uldis Pilens, civil society activist Elina Pinto and Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics are registered by parties to run in the race. It had been considered all but certain that incumbent Egils Levits, Latvia’s president since 2019, would seek reelection for a second term. But in a surprise move announced earlier this month, Levits said he was disappointed that parties in Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’ three-party coalition government hadn’t been able to agree on a joint candidate, and said he wouldn’t run in such a situation.Latvia’s presidency is largely a ceremonial post and the head of state acts mainly as an opinion leader and uniting figure in the country where almost a third of residents speak Russian....

Vatican questions $17 million transfer to impact investing vehicle, moves to prevent similar

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The former monastery on a quiet residential street in Rome once sheltered Jews fearing deportation in World War II. Purchased by the Vatican in 2021 as a dormitory for foreign nuns studying at Rome’s pontifical universities, the building now stands empty, a collateral victim of the latest financial scandal to hit the Holy See.Pope Francis has asked aides to get to the bottom of how at least $17 million, including money to refurbish the dorm, was transferred from the Vatican’s U.S.-based missionary fundraising coffers into an impact investing vehicle run by a priest, The Associated Press has learned. Two years later, the U.S. fundraiser says the money is gone, and the monastery is shuttered. Its renovation is tied up in bureaucratic red tape, while the nuns studying in Rome are still housed at a convent a 90-minute commute away.The story of what happened to the money is one that has vexed Vatican officials on both sides of the Atlantic, all the more because the tr...

Vatican questions $17 million transfers to impact investing fund, moves to prevent similar

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is seeking clarity after the former director of its U.S. missionary fundraising office oversaw the transfer of at least $17 million of its endowment and donations into a new nonprofit and private equity fund that he created and currently manages, The Associated Press has learned.The new management of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, which raises money for the Catholic Church in the developing world, has written off most of that money – the $10.2 million it invested in the private equity fund — as a loss since “there is no timeline and no guarantee of investment return,” according to its latest financial statement.The money was transferred from TPMS-US into a New York-based nonprofit, Missio Corp., and a private equity fund MISIF LLC created by the Rev. Andrew Small while he was the national director of TPMS-US. Both financial vehicles aim to raise capital to provide low-interest loans to and investments in church-run farmin...

South Sudan struggles to clear mines after decades of war as people start returning home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

MAGWI COUNTY, South Sudan (AP) — For the first time since fleeing South Sudan’s civil war eight years ago, Jacob Wani returned home excited to rebuild his life.But when the 45-year-old farmer tried to access his land in Eastern Equatoria state’s Magwi County, he was banned, told that it had been labeled hazardous and contaminated with mines.“My area is dangerous,” Wani said, standing in his shop in Moli village where he now lives, a few miles from the farm. “I do not have the capacity to rebuild in this place and I am also afraid (of explosives). If I go, maybe something can hurt me.” As South Sudanese trickle back into the country after a peace deal was signed in 2018 to end a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions, many are returning to areas riddled with mines left from decades of conflict. More than 5,000 South Sudanese have been killed or injured by land mines and unexploded ordnance since 2004, according to the U.N. Mine ...

Daily horoscope for May 31, 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

Moon Alert: Caution! Avoid shopping or major decisions from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT today (7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT). After that, the Moon moves from Libra into Scorpio.Happy Birthday for Wednesday, May 31, 2023:You have strong views and a no-nonsense approach to life. You are passionate, intense and determined. This year is a time of learning and teaching for you. Take courses. Renew your spiritual beliefs. Study whatever will help you get a better self-awareness about the true meaning of your life.ARIES(March 21-April 19) ★★★It’s a tricky day! Most of this day is a Moon Alert, which means avoid shopping (except for food and gas) and important decisions. Nevertheless, because the proverbial train is off the tracks, you can enjoy frank and imaginative conversations with partners and close friends. Tonight: Check your finances.TAURUS(April 20-May 20) ★★★Be careful today. The Sun is in one of your Money Houses, which means you are thinking about financial matters. Nevertheless, ...

NATO soldiers deploy in Kosovo clashes with Serb protesters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:30 GMT

NATO peacekeeping soldiers formed security cordons around three town halls in Kosovo on Monday (29 May) as police clashed with Serb protesters, while Serbia's president put the army on the highest level of combat alert.The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo's Serb majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted.In Zvecan, one of the towns, Kosovo police - staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs quit the force last year - sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade and tried to force their way into the municipality building, witnesses said.Serb protesters in Zvecan threw tear gas and stun grenades at NATO soldiers. Serbs also clashed with police in Zvecan and spray-painted NATO vehicles with the letter "Z", referring to a Russian sign used in war in Ukraine.In Leposavic, close to the border with Serbia, US peacekeeping troops in riot gear placed barbed wire around the town hall to protect it ...