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Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow jumps bail and moves to Canada

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — One of Hong Kong’s best-known pro-democracy activists, who moved to Canada to pursue further studies, said she would not return to the city to meet her bail conditions, becoming the latest politician to flee Hong Kong under Beijing’s crackdown on dissidents.Agnes Chow, a famous young face in the city’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement, was arrested in 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was enacted following 2019 anti-government protests. She was released on bail but also served more than six months in jail for a separate case over her role in the protests.After Chow was released from prison in 2021 for that case, she had to regularly report to the police. She said in an Instagram post on Sunday night that the pressure caused her “mental illnesses” and influenced her decision not to return to the city. Many of her peers have been jailed, arrested, forced into self-exile or silenced after the introduction of the security law in 2020...

Plan to add teaching of Holocaust, genocide to science education draws questions from Maine teachers

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Teachers and science advocates are voicing skepticism about a Maine proposal to update standards to incorporate teaching about genocide, eugenics and the Holocaust into middle school science education. They argue that teachers need more training before introducing such subjects that are both sensitive and nuanced.While critics of the proposed updates said they are borne of good intentions — the proposal states that science has “sometimes been used by those in power to oppress and abuse others” — they also said that injecting the materials into a middle school science curriculum could distract from conventional scientific principles and could jeopardize science education.The proposal states that science education in the state should reflect that “misinterpretation of fossil observations has led to the false idea of human hierarchies and racial inequality.” The proposal also states that “historically, some people have misused and/or applied the ideas of natural s...

Europe’s world-leading artificial intelligence rules are facing a do-or-die moment

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Hailed as a world first, European Union artificial intelligence rules are facing a make-or-break moment as negotiators try to hammer out the final details this week — talks complicated by the sudden rise of generative AI that produces human-like work.First suggested in 2019, the EU’s AI Act was expected to be the world’s first comprehensive AI regulations, further cementing the 27-nation bloc’s position as a global trendsetter when it comes to reining in the tech industry. But the process has been bogged down by a last-minute battle over how to govern systems that underpin general purpose AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot. Big tech companies are lobbying against what they see as overregulation that stifles innovation, while European lawmakers want added safeguards for the cutting-edge AI systems those companies are developing. Meanwhile, the U.S., U.K., China and global coalitions like the Group of 7 major democracies h...

Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2023

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

From a hot dog vendor to head of the formidable mercenary army Wagner Group, his rise through Russian society could easily be described as meteoric. But it all came to a sudden end when the plane carrying him and others mysteriously exploded.The Aug. 23 death of Yevgeny Prigozhin put an exclamation point on what had already been an eventful year for the brutal mercenary leader. His Wagner troops brought Russia a rare victory in its grinding war in Ukraine, successfully capturing the city of Bakhmut. But internal friction with Russian military leaders later burst into the open, with Prigozhin briefly mounting an armed rebellion — the most severe challenge yet to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.The rebellion was called off and a deal was struck after less than 24 hours. However, just two months later, Prigozhin joined the list of those who have run afoul of the Kremlin and died unnatural deaths.He was just one of many noteworthy people who died in 2023.The world also said good...

Takeaways from The AP’s investigation into the Mormon church’s handling of sex abuse cases

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) — Paul Rytting had been director of the Risk Management Division at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for around 15 years when a 31-year-old church member told him that her father, a former bishop, had sexually abused her when she was a child.Rytting flew from church headquarters in Salt Lake City to Hailey, Idaho, to meet with Chelsea Goodrich and her mother, Lorraine, to discuss what he said was a “tragic and horrendous” story.By that time, Chelsea’s father, John Goodrich, had made a religious confession to a bishop with the church, widely known as the Mormon church, with details of his relationship with his daughter. Following church policy, Bishop Michael Miller had called a church Helpline, established to take calls from bishops about sexual abuse, and John Goodrich was quickly excommunicated.After the excommunication, Chelsea and Lorraine reported Chelsea’s claims of abuse to Mountain Home, Idaho, police. They backed up their accusations with r...

Biden’s allies in Senate demand that Israel limit civilian deaths in Gaza as Congress debates US aid

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a cease-fire ticked down last week and Israel prepared to resume its round-the-clock airstrikes, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a robust group of Democratic senators had a message for their president: They were done “asking nicely” for Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. Lawmakers warned President Joe Biden’s national security team that planned U.S. aid to Israel must be met with assurances of concrete steps from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government. “The truth is that if asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in the position we are today,” Sanders of Vermont said in a floor speech. It was time for the United States to use its “substantial leverage” with its ally, Sanders said.“And we all know what that leverage is,” he said, adding, “the blank-check approach must end.”With Biden’s request for a nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs hanging in the balance, the senators’ toug...

The next Republican debate is in Alabama, the state that gave the GOP a road map to Donald Trump

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Republican presidential candidates will debate Wednesday within walking distance of where George Wallace staged his “stand in the schoolhouse door” to oppose the enrollment of Black students at the University of Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement.The state that propelled Wallace, a Democrat and four-term governor, into national politics is now dominated by Republicans loyal to Donald Trump, another figure who leans heavily on grievance and white identity politics. The former president will not be on stage in Tuscaloosa but remains the prohibitive favorite to win Republicans’ nomination again. Alabama’s path since Wallace ‘s rise helps explain the 2024 dynamics and how Republicans evolved nationally from the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Trump. Certainly, Trump argues he helps all races as a defender of everyday Americans forgotten by Washington elites. He even uses that as a defense against four criminal indictments, accusing establishment...

Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) — Paul Rytting listened as a woman, voice quavering, told him her story. When she was a child, her father, a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had routinely slipped into bed with her while he was aroused, she said. It was March 2017 and Rytting offered his sympathies as 31-year-old Chelsea Goodrich spoke. A Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Rytting had spent about 15 years protecting the organization, widely known as the Mormon church, from costly claims, including sexual abuse lawsuits.Rytting had flown into Hailey, Idaho, that morning from Salt Lake City, where the church is based, to meet in person with Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine. After a quick prayer, he introduced himself and said he was there “to look into” Chelsea’s “tragic and horrendous” story.Chelsea and Lorraine had come to the meeting with one clear request: Would the church allow a local Idaho bishop, which in the Mormon church is ak...

Economists predict US inflation will keep cooling and the economy can avoid a recession

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Most business economists think the U.S. economy could avoid a recession next year, even if the job market ends up weakening under the weight of high interest rates, according to a survey released Monday.Only 24% of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said they see a recession in 2024 as more likely than not. The 38 surveyed economists come from such organizations as Morgan Stanley, the University of Arkansas and Nationwide.Such predictions imply the belief that the Federal Reserve can pull off the delicate balancing act of slowing the economy just enough through high interest rates to get inflation under control, without snuffing out its growth completely.“While most respondents expect an uptick in the unemployment rate going forward, a majority anticipates that the rate will not exceed 5%,” Ellen Zentner, president of the association and chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a statement.The Federal Reserve has raised its ...

OxyContin maker bankruptcy deal goes before the Supreme Court on Monday, with billions at stake

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:16:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments over a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.The agreement hammered out with state and local governments and victims would provide billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic. The Sacklers would contribute up to $6 billion and give up ownership, and the company would emerge from bankruptcy as a different entity, with its profits used for treatment and prevention. But the justices put the settlement on hold during the summer, in response to objections from the Biden administration. Arguments take place Monday.The issue for the justices is whether the legal shield that bankruptcy provides can be extended to people such as the Sacklers, who have not declared bankruptcy themselves. Lower courts have issued conflicting decisions over that issue, which also has implications for other major product...