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China hits back at Biden: ‘Extremely absurd’ to call Xi a dictator

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

China on Wednesday hit back at U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent comment that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was a dictator.“It is a blatant political provocation. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, at a regular press briefing, AP reported.“The U.S. remarks are extremely absurd and irresponsible,” Mao added.China’s response comes a day after Biden, speaking at a campaign event in California, likened Xi to a dictator when referring to the U.S. downing a Chinese spy balloon in February.“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said. “That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”The row is likely to complicate efforts to improve already strained Sino-American relations. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State An...

EU Parliament VP breaks from national party, with sweeping consequences

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

Czech lawmaker Dita Charanzová will no longer run as a member of the European Parliament for the ANO 2011 party of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. In an interview with a Czech daily newspaper, Charanzová, who’s a Parliament Vice President with the liberal Renew Group, expressed her discontent with the campaign Babiš ran leading up to the Czech presidential elections earlier this year, which he lost to Petr Pavel. “I didn’t identify with that and I couldn’t explain it to my colleagues in the European Parliament,” she said.Babiš himself drew the ire of the ALDE Party, the political party affiliated with the Renew Group, by participating in early May in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Hungary, an offspring of a U.S. event, alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Babiš has been suspended from attending ALDE events. An evaluation of ANO’s commitment to the party’s values is ongoing. “I am a liberal with l...

Air National guardsman charged with leaking classified documents set to be arraigned

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

The Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents will be arraigned in federal court on Wednesday.Jack Teixeira, 21, has been charged under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention and transmission of classified national defense information.He has not yet entered a plea..Teixeira is accused of sharing highly classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other top national security issues in a chat room on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers. The stunning breach exposing closely held intelligence has sparked international concern and raised fresh questions about America’s ability to safeguard its secrets.The Air Force has also taken away the intelligence mission from the Air National Guard 102nd Intelligence Wing based in Cape Cod, where Teixeira served, pending further review.Court records unsealed last week revealed how billing records the FBI obtained from Di...

SCOTUS to look at law barring accused domestic abusers from buying guns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

(CNN) — As the Supreme Court justices race to finish up the current term, they will meet behind closed doors on Thursday to consider whether they should add a blockbuster Second Amendment case to the docket for next term.The focus is a federal law that bars an individual subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.It has only been a year since the Supreme Court issued a landmark opinion that marked the broadest expansion of gun rights in a decade. Since then, lower courts have been reconsidering thousands of firearm restrictions.In the case at hand, the conservative-leaning 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals cited the Supreme Court’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision in holding the domestic violence-related gun law unconstitutional, a move that critics say will make it easier for alleged abusers to obtain firearms.Under ordinary circumstances, once the Supreme Court releases a major opinion, they reje...

Yes, inflation is coming down. That doesn’t mean goods and services will be cheaper

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

New York (CNN) — If inflation falls to 2% by the end of this year, that means the cost of everything will no longer be going up, right? Wrong. But that’s what the majority of UK residents think, according to a new survey from polling group Survation.What’s more, almost a third of those surveyed said they think they’ll pay less than they do now.It’s a common misconception that falling inflation equates to falling prices. But the two don’t always go hand in hand.Inflation vs. deflationInflation is the rate at which prices for goods and services across an entire economy are rising over a given period of time. When inflation rises, it means you’ll have to spend more money to buy the same goods and services as you used to.Deflation, in contrast, is when goods and services get cheaper. It means that any money you earn today will stretch even further in the future.China is one of the few countries that’s on the verge of experiencing deflation. Most other countries — wit...

Andrew Tate appears in Romanian court to face rape and human trafficking charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andrew Tate, a social media personality known for expressing misogynistic views online, appeared Wednesday at a court in Romania, where prosecutors have charged him with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women.Tate and his brother, Tristan, who is also charged with the offenses, arrived Wednesday at a court in the capital Bucharest, flanked by six bodyguards.Prosecutors have also filed charges against two Romanian women in the case. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency alleged that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain.The agency alleged that seven female victims were misled and transported to Romania, where they were sexually exploited and subjected to physical violence by the gang. One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the statement.Tate, 36, has resided i...

Howie Carr: It’s just a (Biden) family affair

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

The good news for Dementia Joe Biden is that the crooked G-men yesterday broomed all the federal charges against his alcoholic crackhead hooker-grabbing bagman son Hunter.The bad news is, Dementia Joe has to keep going out there every day and showing everyone just how non compos mentis he has become.Non compos mentis – not of sound mind.Let’s consider some of Joe’s remarks from earlier this month. All dialogue guaranteed verbatim.Biden ended his comments in Connecticut Friday afternoon by suddenly shouting, “God save the Queen, man!”On Monday in Palo Alto he said, “I’ve committed that by 2020 we will have conserved 30 percent of all the lands and waters the United States has jurisdiction over.”By 2020 he will have accomplished this feat! May we quote you on that, Mr. President.He announced the largest public-works project in world history:“We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.”Could we please finish the Sumner Tunnel repairs first? A...

‘Swagger’ review: In Season 2, will these high school seniors see their hoop dreams deferred?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

As a genre, sports dramas are wonderfully malleable and serve as a backdrop for all kinds of storytelling that isn’t about athletics. They’re metaphors for what it means to navigate through life. The pressures can be especially stark for young phenoms who are shouldering all kinds of expectations, and “Swagger,” on Apple TV+, looks at what it means to be a kid with the potential to go all the way to the pros. Initially following a group of 14-year-old elite basketball players, the show’s second season catches up with the boys in their senior year of high school, when their hopes for college recruitment are on the line.Loosely inspired by the childhood of NBA player Kevin Durant, the Durant stand-in is Jace Carson (Isaiah Hill, quietly charismatic), a star player in his final year at a ritzy, predominantly white prep school. Everyone is banking that Jace and his teammates will end the season as national champs under the watchful eye of Coach Ike (O’...

Who could Celtics select with No. 35 pick of 2023 NBA Draft?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

On the surface, it may not seem likely that the Celtics will land an impact player in Thursday night’s NBA draft.The Celtics don’t own a first-round pick after trading that selection to the Pacers last July when they acquired Malcolm Brogdon. They have just one pick in this draft at No. 35 overall in the second round. Victor Wembanyama and the rest of this year’s top-end talent will obviously be long gone by then, but that doesn’t mean the Celtics can’t find a hidden gem.A glance at the history of players selected at No. 35 reveals that to be true. Draymond Green was drafted there by the Warriors in 2012 and became a fixture of their dynasty. DeAndre Jordan was picked at No. 35 in 2008 and has carved out a good career.Glen “Big Baby” Davis was the 35th choice by the Sonics in 2007 on the night he was traded to the Celtics in the Ray Allen deal. The year before, in 2006, P.J. Tucker was taken by the Raptors. As the Celtics fully know, he’s still been a factor over the last handful of...

Swedish appeals court ups surgeon’s sentence for ‘harm’ during experimental windpipe transplants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:31 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish appeals court on Wednesday increased a prison sentence for an Italian surgeon over experimental stem cell windpipe transplants on three patients who died. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini made headlines in 2011 for carrying out the world’s first stem cell windpipe transplants at Sweden’s leading hospital and had been sentenced to no prison time by a lower court. But the Svea Court of Appeal concluded that there were no emergency situations among two of the three patients who later died, while the procedure on the third could not be justified. The appeals court sentenced the Italian scientist to two-and-a-half years in jail for causing the death of three people between 2011 and 2014. “The patients have been caused bodily harm and suffering,” the appeals court said of the two men and one woman. The patients, it concluded, “could have lived for a not insignificant amount of time without the interventions.”Macchiarini denied any criminal wrongdoing. Once considered a lea...