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Dutch government falls as ministers clash over migration

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

The Dutch coalition government collapsed Friday evening after failing to reach a deal on how to handle the number of asylum seekers entering the Netherlands, according to local media. For months, ministers have been discussing new measures to limit the flow of asylum seekers to the country. But tensions came to a head this week when two coalition parties refused to support a push by Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative party to make it harder for refugee families to reunite.Rutte has led the Netherlands since October 2010 in four different coalitions, making him the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history.His VVD wanted to create a two-tier system for asylum seekers, with people under threat of persecution granted more rights than those fleeing war zones. It also said the number of family members who could join refugees in the second category should be capped at 200 per year.But the party ran into opposition on the last point from the ChristenUnie, the smallest memb...

Rescuers free dozens trapped on one of world’s highest cable car systems

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

(CNN) — Dozens of people trapped in gondolas on one of the world’s highest cable car systems in Ecuador have been rescued, according to a statement from government officials Friday.Firefighters were alerted around 4 p.m. local time Thursday of a technical failure that affected the Quito Cable Car, with at least 70 people trapped, the Quito municipality said in a statement. They launched a rescue effort in the highlands soon after.“In total, the authorities rescued 27 people who had been suspended in the gondolas when the service was inoperative and 47 people who had been left without transportation on top of the mountain,” the statement said.The mayor of Quito, Pabel Muñoz, said the rescued people do not show signs of hypothermia or injuries.He also ordered to suspend the cable cars’ operation until investigations have been carried out.Photos released by Quito authorities show emergency workers huddled in the dark, with the city mayor on site, as rescue effo...

Orioles outfielder Austin Hays to start All-Star Game in Seattle

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

When Minnesota Twins first baseman Donovan Solano’s knee collided with Austin Hays’ left hip Sunday, the Orioles’ outfielder feared for the worst.Hours after learning he was a first-time All-Star, Hays exited the game with a bruise, saying Thursday the “good news was kind of short-lived.” But despite having not played since Sunday, Hays said the injury won’t keep him from competing in the All-Star Game. In fact, he’ll start it.With fan vote winners Aaron Judge and Mike Trout on the injured list, Hays will be one of the American League’s starting outfielders in Tuesday night’s Midsummer Classic at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park alongside the Texas Rangers’ Adolis García and the Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena. The 28-year-old Hays is hitting .312, tied for the second-best average in the AL, with an .843 OPS.Hays will be the Orioles’ second All-Star starter in three years, with Cedric Mullins also serving as a...

UN tech agency rolls out human-looking robots for questions at a Geneva news conference

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A United Nations technology agency assembled a group of robots that physically resembled humans at a news conference Friday, inviting reporters to ask them questions in an event meant to spark discussion about the future of artificial intelligence.The nine robots were seated and posed upright along with some of the people who helped make them at a podium in a Geneva conference center for what the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union billed as the world’s first news conference featuring humanoid social robots.Among them: Sophia, the first robot innovation ambassador for the U.N. Development Program, or UNDP; Grace, described as a health care robot; and Desdemona, a rock star robot. Two, Geminoid and Nadine, resembled their makers.Organizers said the event at the AI for Good Global Summit was meant to showcase the capabilities, but also the limitations, of robotics and how those technologies could help the U.N.’s sustainable development go...

Bruins notebook: Don Sweeney revisits free agency strategy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

When Tyler Bertuzzi settled for a one-year deal worth $5.5 million with the Toronto Maple Leafs, many people across the hockey world were a bit surprised. Bertuzzi was considered one of the top free agents available and, though it was a relatively weak class, those guys usually cash in with both term and money.You can count Bruins’ GM Don Sweeney in that group. After talks with Bertuzzi’s camp didn’t produce a deal, Sweeney went out and signed James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, Kevin Shattenkirk, Morgan Geekie, and Patrick Brown.Bertuzzi’s agent himself said that they were originally looking for a long term but pivoted after realizing no contenders had space for such a deal.“Probably a little bit (surprised). His goal – and I’ll speak more generally about a player on another team at this point in time – there were players that were looking for longer term deals and my discussions were focused around that,” said Sweeney. “Some teams were in good position t...

Can I still listen to Kanye? Should I hate Bill Murray now? Ask Claire Dederer. She won’t judge you

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

Christopher Borrelli | Chicago TribuneClaire Dederer does not carry a portable confessional, but she might want to consider the investment. We sat beside each other recently in the lobby of a School of the Art Institute of Chicago building on Michigan Avenue. I wondered: Are people asking you to judge them? She smiled a big smile that could only be interpreted one way: You have no idea how many people ask. Dederer, an author and essayist from Seattle, was in town to talk about “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma,” her latest book, and without question the finest one-volume wrangling with a very contemporary dilemma:How should we feel about great art made by bad people?Or as Dederer writes, summarizing decades of controversies into a tidy thought: “They were accused of doing or saying something awful, and made something great.”Six years ago, in The Paris Review, her essay “What Do We Do With the Art of Monstrous Men?” became the most widely circulated writing on this argument, which is often ...

Election on constitutional amendments in Ohio could impact abortion rights measure

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Voter registration will close Monday for an election on whether to make it more difficult to amend Ohio’s constitution, the results of which could have immediate consequences for an abortion rights amendment in the works.Early in-person voting in the Aug. 8 contest begins Tuesday. If approved, Issue 1 would raise the threshold for passing future constitutional changes from a simple majority in place since 1912 to a 60% supermajority.Proponents of the measure, represented by the Protect Our Constitution coalition, argue that the increased percentage will keep deep-pocketed interest groups from pushing unwanted abortion, gun control, minimum wage, farm and other policies on Ohioans. One Person One Vote, the opposition campaign, says the rushed effort in an off-year election is intended to prevent passing policies that are popular with a majority of average Ohioans but opposed by the increasingly conservative GOP supermajority at the Statehouse. Since the la...

TTC report mum on rival access as Rogers eyes 5G upgrades to downtown subway by fall

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

A new Toronto Transit Commission report says Rogers will look to upgrade parts of the downtown subway network with 5G cell access by this fall.Although Rogers says it is committed to providing other wireless carriers access to the network, the TTC CEO report doesn’t say whether customers of other companies will have service at that time.The report slated to go before the TTC board Wednesday says Rogers will look to provide 5G capability along Line 1’s tunnels and stations from Union station north to St. George and Bloor-Yonge stations by the start of the school year.Portion of the TTC CEO’s July 12 report on the implementation of Rogers cell service in the subway system. TTCWhile Bell and Telus have both advocated for a model that would see the companies expand and upgrade the network together, rejecting a pay-for-access approach, Rogers has not publicly committed to either model since its April takeover of rights to the TTC network.Freedom Mobile was the only carr...

Biden adviser says US is pressing for the release of reporter who has spent 100 days in Russian jail

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday said the U.S. has been in contact with Russian officials to press for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as Friday marked the 100th day of the journalist being detained by the Russian government.Sullivan said he also spoke with Gershkovich’s family representatives and Wall Street Journal officials on Friday about the status of the case and the administration’s efforts to win the reporter’s release. The Kremlin earlier this week suggested that it was open to a possible prisoner exchange that could involve Gershkovich, but it underscored that such talks must be held out of the public eye.“I do not want to give false hope,” Sullivan told reporters. “What the Kremlin said earlier this week is correct. There have been discussions. But those discussions have not produced a clear pathway to a resolution, and so I cannot stand here today and tell you that we have a cle...

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations involving Trump have cost more than $9 million

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:28:09 GMT

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of President Donald Trump’s retention of classified records and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election have cost more than $9 million over the first several months, according to documents released Friday. The special counsel’s office spent more than $5.4 million on things like employees’ salaries, travel and transportation, rent, supplies and materials from Smith’s appointment by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 through the end of March, Justice Department statement of expenditures show. Justice Department agencies spent another $3.8 million to support the special counsel. Those expenses include the cost of the protective details for the special counsel’s office as well as hours worked by agents and analysts on the probes. Trump was indicted last month on 37 felony counts alleging he illegally kept classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and refused government dema...