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India’s Modi meets the press at the White House — and takes rare questions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Narendra Modi did something very unusual on Thursday at the White House — he took questions from journalists.It’s a rare occurrence for the Indian prime minister who avoids unscripted moments and has presided over a steady decline in press freedom in his country. The news conference was more limited than the kind that U.S. presidents usually hold with foreign leaders, but even that wasn’t easy to arrange with Modi. Indian officials agreed to the event only the day before, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. Administration officials told Modi’s advisers that taking questions from the media was a standard part of how White House state visits are conducted, the person said.An Indian reporter asked about addressing climate change, and an American reporter pressed Modi on human rights concerns— a particularly delicate topic as the United States seeks closer ties with India as a b...

Animal sedative adds new suffering to opioid drug crisis, but is it driving up deaths?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful animal sedative in the illicit drug supply is complicating the U.S. response to the opioid crisis, scrambling longstanding methods for reversing overdoses and treating addiction.Xylazine can cause severe skin wounds, but whether it is leading to more deaths — as suggested by officials in Washington — is not yet clear, according to health and law enforcement professionals on the front lines of efforts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In fact, early data suggests the drug may inadvertently be diluting the effects of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid behind most overdose deaths.There is broad agreement, however, that much more information is needed to understand xylazine’s impact, to craft ways of disrupting illegal supplies and to develop medicines to reverse its effects.“We don’t know whether xylazine is increasing the risk of overdose or reducing the risk of overdose,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who advises federal ...

Bucks GM Jon Horst confirms that Khris Middleton has declined his player option for 2023-24 season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst confirmed that Khris Middleton declined his player option for the upcoming season but added that the team hopes to keep the three-time All-Star forward.ESPN first reported that Middleton had opted against exercising the $40.4 million option.“Khris is core to who we are and really all the success we’ve had,” Horst said late Thursday night at a post-draft news conference. “Our goal is always to sustain our success and continue to compete and (have) a chance to win and be in position to win year in and year out. We hope to have him back.”Middleton, who turns 32 on Aug. 12, averaged 15.1 points, 4.9 assists and 4.2 rebounds in 33 games last season. He missed the first 20 games of the season while recovering from wrist surgery and sat out 18 straight games later in the season due to a sore right knee.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

Insólito: Esposa de piloto de sumergible que implosionó desciende de pareja que murió en el Titanic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

NUEVA YORK — La esposa del hombre que pilotaba el sumergible de OceanGate cuando implosionó durante una inmersión esta semana en el lugar donde se hallaban los restos del Titanic es descendiente de una pareja adinerada que murió cuando se hundió el famoso transatlántico en 1912.Los archivos muestran que Wendy Rush, esposa de Stockton Rush, director general de OceanGate, es tataranieta de Isidor y Ida Straus, informó el jueves The New York Times. Straus era un magnate del comercio minorista, copropietario de la tienda departamental Macy’s.Nacida como Wendy Hollings Weil, Wendy Rush se casó con Stockton Rush en 1986, de acuerdo con el anuncio de su boda. El Times dijo que no pudo contactar a Wendy Rush por el momento para obtener más comentarios.La Guardia Costera de Estados Unidos anunció el jueves que Stockton Rush y otros cuatro hombres que iban a bordo del sumergible fallecieron cuando el navío implosionó presumiblemente hace unos días en el norte del océano Atlántico.Isidor y Ida...

La tormenta tropical Bret azota las islas orientales del Caribe con vientos y lluvias fuertes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

(CNN) — La tormenta tropical Bret seguía azotando las islas del Caribe oriental a primera hora del viernes, llevando vientos fuertes y lluvias torrenciales que podrían causar inundaciones y un peligroso oleaje.El Centro Nacional de Huracanes (NHC, por sus siglas en inglés) informó a última hora de la noche del jueves que Bret, que había registrado vientos huracanados sostenidos de 113 km/h, se había debilitado ligeramente a 96 km/h con ráfagas aún mayores y se desplazaba hacia el oeste a 29 km/h.En centro de la tormenta —que se movía hacia el oeste a través de partes del grupo de islas de las Antillas Menores del Caribe oriental, que incluye Dominica, Santa Lucía y Barbados, y la región francesa de ultramar de Martinica— estaba a solo ocho km al este de San Vicente a última hora del jueves, dijo el NHC.Las condiciones de tormenta tropical -vientos de al menos 63 km/h- se extendían hacia el exterior hasta 185 kilómetros desde el centro de la tormenta. El aeropuerto internaciona...

An explosion at a Chinese steel mill kills 4 and injures 5

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — An explosion at a steel mill in China’s northeast killed four people and left five hospitalized with injuries, the city government said Friday.A blast furnace exploded Thursday morning at the Yingkou Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. in Yingkou, east of Beijing in Liaoning province, the city’s Emergency Management Bureau said in a statement.The cause was under investigation, but experts believe an equipment malfunction was to blame, the announcement said.Phone calls to the Yingkou government Friday weren’t answered.The disaster occurred less than 12 hours after an explosion Wednesday evening blamed on cooking gas killed 31 people in a barbecue restaurant in Yinchuan, a city in China’s northwest. The Associated Press

Infighting among Putin’s lieutenants seems to reveal signs of ‘deep dysfunction’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

The video was shocking — not just for what it showed but also for what was said.Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, stood in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops in Ukraine and yelled expletive-riddled insults at Russian military leaders, blaming them for the carnage.“They came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your red wood offices,” Prigozhin shouted. “You are sitting in your expensive clubs, your children are enjoying good living and filming videos on YouTube. Those who don’t give us ammunition will be eaten alive in hell!”It was a disquieting display for Russians used to more than two decades of rigidly controlled rule by President Vladimir Putin — years with little sign of infighting among his top lieutenants.Prigozhin’s video in May and his other rants against the military leadership have been met with silence from Putin, as well as the brass. Some see Putin’s failure to squelc...

German parliament approves a memorial to Jehovah’s Witnesses persecuted by the Nazis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The German parliament has approved the construction of a memorial in Berlin to the Jehovah’s Witnesses persecuted under the Nazis, a plan the country’s culture minister hopes will help end their status as “forgotten victims.”On Thursday evening, lawmakers backed a motion formally calling on the government to support construction of the memorial in the capital’s central Tiergarten park.It will follow memorials already constructed in Berlin over the past two decades to Jewish, gay, Sinti and Roma, and disabled people murdered by the Nazis. Lawmakers also have mandated a project to build a memorial to the Polish victims of World War II.The foundation that oversees the existing memorials, which also will be in charge of the one for Jehovah’s Witnesses, pointed to the Christian denomination’s resistance from the start to the Nazi regime, and to the help it gave other persecuted groups, noting that its members refused to give the Hitler salute o...

Tropical Storm Bret brings winds and rain to islands in eastern Caribbean

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Bret brought winds and heavy rain early Friday to islands in the eastern Caribbean that shut down to prepare for potential landslides and flooding.The storm’s center was west of St. Vincent and west-southwest of St. Lucia and moving west at 17 mph (28 kph). Its maximum sustained winds were 60 mph (95 kph).Airports, businesses, schools and offices closed on St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique and other islands by midday Thursday.Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, had urged people to go to a government shelter if they believed their home might not withstand the strong winds and heavy rains.“These storms can turn around fairly quickly,” he warned.Forecasters had warned that the storm might pass directly over St. Lucia, which is north of St. Vincent, but its path shifted south.“Protect your lives, property and livelihoods,” urged Prime Minister Philip Pierre on St. Lucia.Residents across St. Luci...

Flooding displaces tens of thousands and kills 1 as heavy monsoon rains batter Indian villages

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:58 GMT

GUWAHATI, India (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have taken shelter in government-run relief camps as heavy monsoon rains batter villages in India’s northeast, and one person has died in the floodwaters this week, a government relief agency said Friday.Assam state is on red alert and bracing for more downpours this weekend by evacuating people in low-lying areas.Nearly 14,000 people currently live in 83 relief camps run by the Assam state government in 20 out of the state’s 31 districts, said the state disaster management agency in a statement. Overall, nearly 500,000 people have been hit by the monsoon floods in the state.“We are fully prepared to deal with the situation with our rescue agencies deployed at vulnerable and worst-affected locations,” said G.D. Tripathi, a state government official.One of Asia’s largest rivers, the Brahmaputra, floods annually. It flows 1,280 kilometers (800 miles) across Assam state before running through Bangladesh, which shares a 260-kilome...