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Trail Blazers erase 22-point deficit for 109-04 win over Suns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — DeAndre Ayton had a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds, Anfernee Simons had 23 points and seven rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers erased a 22-point deficit to beat the Phoenix Suns 109-104 on Tuesday night to snap a seven-game losing streak.The loss for the Suns was their fifth in seven games. Phoenix’s Kevin Durant led all scorers with 40 points while Devin Booker had 26 points and seven assists.Simons’ layup with 10.7 seconds left helped stop a late Phoenix rally after Portland pushed their lead to 14 in the 4th quarter. “I was trying to decide whether to go up with two hands or shoot a floater and at the last minute I switched it to a floater,” Simons said of his final basket.Ayton played a game-high 40 minutes and put up a season-high 18 field goal attempts against his former team. The former No. 1 pick downplayed any extra motivation against the team that drafted him.“I’ve just been focused on being a Trail Blazer and establishing who ...

STORY REMOVED: US–Black Historic Communities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Please disregard US–Black Historic Communities, published on December 19, 2023, and datelined in DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, S.C.. It is intended for a future cycle.Source

EU strikes historic migration deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Wednesday broke years of political deadlock by agreeing on a deal that will significantly change how the bloc processes migrants, moves them around EU countries and effectively makes it easier to remove unsuccessful asylum seekers.European Parliament President Roberta Metsola hailed the deal as historic. Negotiators from the Parliament, Council and Commission worked through the night to agree on the overhaul of the EU’s asylum procedures. It came after years of failed attempts, with regulations aiming to balance the concerns of both border countries that want help handling asylum seekers and inland countries that argue too many migrants are arriving in one EU country, and then moving on to others. Under the agreement, which is preliminary and still needs to be formally ratified by the European Parliament and Council, frontline countries in Southern Europe will institute a stricter asylum procedure at their non-EU borders and will be more e...

UK inflation falls sharply in November, boosting BoE rate cut hopes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

Inflation in the U.K. fell to its lowest in over two years in November, fanning the flames of speculation that the Bank of England will be start cutting interest rates relatively early next year. The Office for National Statistics said its consumer price index fell 0.2 percent from October, rather than rising 0.2 percent as economists had expected ahead of time. Underlying inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, fell even more sharply, by 0.3 percent. That brought the headline annual rate down to 3.9 percent, down from 4.6 percent in October. While that’s still nearly double the Bank of England’s medium-term target of 2 percent, it represents remarkable progress from a peak of over 11 percent a year ago. Financial markets reacted enthusiastically to the news, pushing the benchmark FTSE 100 stock index up over 1.3 percent to its highest since May, the best performing market in Europe, while the pound fell half a percent against both the euro and the ...

US flies a bomber for joint drills with South Korea, Japan after North’s long-range missile launch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States flew a long-range bomber for joint drills with South Korea and Japan on Wednesday in a show of force against North Korea, days after the North performed its first interconnectional ballistic missile test in five months. The trilateral training off South Korea’s southern island of Jeju was meant to strengthen the countries’ joint response against North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.The exercise involved a B-1B bomber and South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, the statement said. It said the B-1B’s flyover is the 13th time that a U.S. bomber has been temporarily deployed near and over the Korean Peninsula this year.A B-1B is capable of carrying a large conventional weapons payload. North Korean has previously called the bomber’s deployment a proof of U.S. hostility and had reacted with missile tests.North Korea on Monday launched a Hwasong-18 ICBM into the sea in a drill it said was me...

A Rwandan doctor gets 24-year prison sentence in France for his role in the 1994 genocide

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A Rwandan doctor was sentenced by a Paris court on Wednesday to 24 years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide in his home country. Sosthene Munyemana, 68, was found guilty of charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and helping prepare a genocide.His lawyers said that he would appeal the decision. Munyemana has never been detained, remaining free throughout the trial. He won’t go to prison while an appeal is ongoing.Munyemana, who moved to France months after the genocide and quickly raised suspicions among Rwandans living there, has denied wrongdoing.The verdict comes nearly three decades after the genocide, in which more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them were killed.At the time, Munyemana was a 38-year-old gynecologist in Tumba, in the southern university district of Butare.He has been accused of co-signing in April 1994 “a motion of support” for the interim government that supervised the genocide and of partici...

Hamas says its top leader has arrived in Cairo for talks on the war in Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas says its top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has arrived in Cairo for talks on the war in Gaza. Egypt, along with Qatar — where Haniyeh is believed to be based — have both played a key role as mediators between the militant group and Israel since the war that began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hamas said Haniyeh would discuss the war with Egyptian officials after having arrived Wednesday in Cairo, but did not provide details. Negotiations were underway on another cease-fire and the release of more hostages held by the militant group, but the two sides were believed to be far from an agreement.Wafaa Shurafa And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press

EU claims a migration deal breakthrough after years of talks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union negotiators on Wednesday clinched a deal on the main elements of an overhaul of the bloc’s outdated asylum rules, paving the way for a definitive agreement to be reached before EU-wide elections in June.Envoys from member countries, the bloc’s parliament and the executive branch, the European Commission, “reached a deal on the core political elements” of the Pact on Asylum and Migration, the EU’s Spanish presidency said in a statement after a night of negotiations.The pact was touted as the answer to the EU’s migration woes when it was made public in September 2020. The bloc’s old rules collapsed in 2015 after well over 1 million people arrived in Europe without authorization. Most were fleeing war in Syria or Iraq.But little progress was made on the pact as the member states bickered over which country should take charge of migrants when they arrive and whether other countries should be obligated to help.The presidency said negotiators had bridged dif...

UK inflation falls by more than anticipated to 2-year low of 3.9% in November

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the U.K. as measured by the consumer prices index eased back to its lowest level in more than two years, official figures showed Wednesday, in a development that is likely to bolster speculation that the Bank of England may start cutting interest rates sooner than expected.The Office for National Statistics said inflation dropped to 3.9% in the year to November, its lowest level since September 2021, from 4.6% the previous month. That decline was bigger than anticipated in financial markets.The agency said the biggest driver for the fall was a decrease in fuel prices after an increase at the same time last year. Food price inflation also contributed to the decline.Last week, the Bank of England left its main interest rate at a 15-year high of 5.25%, where it has stood since August following the end of nearly two years of hikes. Bank Gov. Andrew Bailey said interest rate policy would likely have to remain “restrictive for an extended period of time.”T...

Filmmakers call on Iranian authorities to drop charges against 2 movie directors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:59 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Filmmakers and movie festival organizers from around the world have called on Iranian authorities to drop all charges against two Iranian film directors and lift their travel ban.Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha had planned to travel to Paris in September for post-production on their new film, “My Favorite Cake,” but authorities confiscated their passports and informed them that they were banned from leaving Iran, said an open letter by PEN America on Tuesday that was signed by 30 filmmakers and artists. The two were among some 70 Iranian filmmakers and movie industry workers who had joined the hashtag #put_your_gun_down, which was a reference to a violent crackdown during an unrest following the Metropol building collapse in the southwestern city of Abadan that killed at least 41 people in May 2022.Moghadam and Sanaeeha gained international recognition for their 2020 film “Ballad of a White Cow,” which won several prizes, including...