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Belarus says Wagner chief who staged mutiny is in Russia, raising questions about Kremlin’s strategy

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The mercenary leader who led a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin is in Russia and his troops are in their field camps, the president of Belarus said Thursday, raising new questions about the deal that ended the extraordinary challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s claim could not be independently verified, and the Kremlin refused to comment on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s whereabouts. But Russian media have reported he was recently seen at his offices in St. Petersburg.It was not clear if Prigozhin’s presence in Russia would violate the deal, which allowed the head of the Wagner Group military contractor to move to Belarus in exchange for ending the rebellion and a promise of amnesty for him and his troops. But the reports signaled that the agreement may have allowed him to finalize his affairs in Russia.If that’s true, it could suggest the threat posed by Prigozhin has not yet been full...

Serbia to seek meeting with NATO chief, UN Security Council session on Kosovo tensions

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president on Thursday accused Kosovo of carrying out “silent ethnic cleansing” of Serbs and said his country will seek a meeting with NATO’s chief and an urgent session of United Nations Security Council to demand their protection. “Things are out of control,” Aleksandar Vucic said. “Serbian people have been cornered.”Vucic said he will urge the meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg next week before requesting the U.N. Security Council session. Serbia could begin unspecified difficult “activities” if the two initiatives produce no results, he warned.“We have no right to allow further pogrom, persecution or ethnic cleansing of our people,” Vucic said.Serbia briefly heightened the combat readiness of its armed forces and threatened a military intervention after tensions recently soared in Kosovo between the ethnic Albanian-dominated government and the Serb minority living in northern Kosovo.Vucic cited recen...

Greece welcomes deescalation in the eastern Mediterranean without directly referring to Turkey

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Greece’s newly appointed defense minister on Thursday welcomed a deescalation of tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, expressing hope this would lead to a “climate of trust” without directly referring to Turkey.But Nikos Dendias said that trust must be built on the U.N. charter and on respect for the rule of law on land and at sea with the “absolute condemnation for the threat of the use of force.”Dendias, a former foreign minister, made the remarks after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Michalis Georgallas during his first overseas visit following the reelection of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.Although Dendias’ remarks were clearly referring to Turkey, the Greek top diplomat didn’t mention the country by name, ostensibly in hopes of encouraging reelected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to engage in dialogue with Athens and Cyprus on a host of issues that continue to be a source of friction between the neighbors.Dendias’ visit came two d...

Trial of 10 accused over 2016 Brussels attacks that killed 32 takes major step toward conclusion

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Seven years after the deadliest peacetime attack on Belgian soil, the trial of 10 men accused over the suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a subway station took a major step toward its conclusion on Thursday.More than half a year after the trial started, the court held its last audience and the jury will begin the drawn-out process of deciding on the fate of those charged. The 12 jurors will have to answer almost 300 questions about the suspects, which means reaching a verdict can take several weeks.The 10 men were charged over the morning rush hour attacks at Belgium’s main airport and on the central commuter line on March 22, 2016, which killed 32 people, and nearly 900 others were wounded or suffered mental trauma.The ten defendants face charges that include murder, attempted murder and membership in, or participation in the acts of, a terrorist group. If convicted, some of them could face up to 30 years in prison. Sentencing is not expected before September....

An already full-tilt movie franchise turns it up a notch in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — There are, as a rule, only so many places you can go as an action movie after leaving Tom Cruise clinging to the side of an Airbus A400M and flinging him out a cargo plane at 25,000 feet.But in the kinetic, headlong world of “Mission: Impossible,” the pressure to keep upping the ante — like the films’ always-running star — never stops.“Every time we finish a movie, the first thing Tom says to me is: We can do better,” says Christopher McQuarrie.McQuarrie, the writer-director of 2015’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” and the 2018 franchise high point, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” was working with Cruise on “Top Gun: Maverick ” (which McQuarrie wrote) when they started talking about their ambitions for the next iteration of “Mission: Impossible.”Their plan was to make not one but two sequels: Back-to-back blockbusters that would feature even bigger stunts — Cruise envisioned a motorcycle jump-slash-skydive — and a massive train sequence that McQuarrie pined to...

Wimbledon is finally dry as organizers try to catch up following 3 days of rain

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — The courts are finally dry at Wimbledon and the sun is even shining through the clouds at times, giving organizers hope of fitting in a full day of tennis on Thursday for the first time at this year’s tournament.The first three days of action at the All England Club were affected by rain. Only eight matches were completed on Tuesday. Those matches were played on either Centre Court or No. 1 Court, the only stadiums on the grounds with roofs.Because of the all the disruption, there were a handful of first-round matches being played on Day 4. Normally, the first Thursday of the tournament would wrap up the second round.Among the winners was Stan Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion from Switzerland. Wawrinka beat No. 29-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the third round.The 38-year-old Wawrinka won his major titles at the other three Grand Slam tournaments, and his best result at Wimbledon was reaching the...

United Methodists lose one-fifth of US churches in schism driven by growing defiance of LGBTQ bans

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.Those figures emerge following the close of regular meetings in June for the denomination’s regional bodies, known as annual conferences. The departures began with a trickle in 2019 — when the church created a four-year window of opportunity for U.S. congregations to depart over LGBTQ-related issues — and cascaded to its highest level this year.Church law forbids the marriage or ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” but many conservatives have chosen to leave amid a growing defiance of those bans in many U.S. churches and conferences.Many of the departing congregations are joining the Global Methodist Church, a denomination created last year by conservatives breaking from the UMC, while others are going independent o...

Statistics Canada reports $3.4B merchandise trade deficit for May

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the country posted a merchandise trade deficit of $3.4 billion in May, the largest deficit since October 2020.The result compared with a revised surplus of $894 million in April.Exports fell 3.8 per cent to $61.5 billion in May as exports of energy products fell 7.3 per cent, in large part due to lower prices.Exports of farm, fishing and intermediate food products also dropped 13.4 per cent for the month.Meanwhile, imports rose 3.0 per cent in May to $65 billion as imports of metal and non-metallic mineral products rose 12.3 per cent, helped higher by shipments of unwrought silver from the United Kingdom. In volume terms, overall exports fell 2.5 per cent in May, while imports rose 3.5 per cent.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2023.The Canadian Press

Unofficial record high temperature hits Earth this week — more than once

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

Earth’s average temperature on Wednesday remained at an unofficial record high set the day before, the latest grim milestone in a week that has seen series of climate-change-driven extremes.The average global temperature was 17.18 Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. That matched a record set Tuesday and came after a previous record of 17.01 Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was set Monday.While the figures are not an official government record, “this is showing us an indication of where we are right now,” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Sarah Kapnick. And NOAA indicated it will take the figures into consideration for its official record calculations.Scientists generally use much longer measurements — months, years, decades — to track the Earth’s warming, but the daily highs are an indication tha...

Eagles announce final tour, bidding a 'long goodbye' to fans

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:09 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (WANE) -- Get ready to say goodbye to the Eagles.The beloved rock band announced Thursday morning that they are embarking on the "Eagles: The Long Goodbye Final Tour" after what the band called "a miraculous 52-year odyssey, performing for people all over the globe."The tour is "in the planning stages," the announcement said, and it's expected to last until sometime in 2025. So far, 13 dates have been announced, starting in New York on Sept. 7."Our long run has lasted far longer than any of us ever dreamed," the band said in the announcement. "But, everything has its time, and the time has come for us to close the circle... This is our swan song, but the music goes on and on."Find tour details and get tickets on the band's website.