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Christopher Luxon wins New Zealand election after incumbent Prime Minister Chris Hipkins concedes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Former businessman Christopher Luxon will be New Zealand’s next prime minister after winning a decisive election victory Saturday.People voted for change after six years of a liberal government led for most of that time by Jacinda Ardern.The exact makeup of Luxon’s conservative government is still to be determined as ballots continued to be counted. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who spent just nine months in the top job after taking over from Ardern in January, told supporters late Saturday he had called Luxon to concede.Hipkins said it wasn’t the result he wanted.“But I want you to be proud of what we achieved over the last six years,” he told supporters at an event in Wellington.Ardern unexpectedly stepped down as prime minister in January, saying she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do the job justice. She won the last election in a landslide, but her popularity waned as people got tired of COVID-19 restrictions and inflation threatened the econo...

An Australian referendum to create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament has failed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Three leading advocates for constitutional change in Australia conceded defeat on Saturday in a referendum that would have created an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.Australian Broadcasting Corp. said based on early vote counting that the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia have rejected the amendment that would have created an Indigenous committee to advise Parliament and the government on issues that affect Australia’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.The Voice needs majorities in each of at least four of the six states as well as a national majority for the referendum to pass.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Polling closed in all but one Australian state Saturday with the “no” vote dominating early counting in the country’s first referendum in a generation, deciding whether to tackle Indigenous disadvantages by enshrining in the constitution a new advocacy ...

UN will repatriate 9 South African peacekeepers in Congo accused of sexual assault

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The United Nations said it will repatriate nine peacekeepers from a South African contingent in eastern Congo who were accused of sexual assault and other abuse.The U.N. decided to immediately repatriate the peacekeepers and a senior officer of the South African army “due to the seriousness of the allegations against them,” the organization said in a statement on Friday. The senior officer allegedly tried to hinder a probe into the allegations and threatened other peacekeepers. Two other indicted senior officers will also be replaced, the U.N. said. More than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers are deployed in eastern Congo, where more than 100 armed groups are active. The U.N. said its preliminary assessment found that the nine peacekeepers were “fraternizing after curfew hours” in prohibited bars where prostitution takes place. The soldiers were also alleged to have assaulted staff of the peacekeeping mission and the military police who were trying to arrest them, the s...

Palestinians stream south in Gaza as Israel urges mass evacuation and stages brief ground incursions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza on Saturday after the Israeli military ordered nearly half the population to evacuate south and carried out limited ground forays ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel.Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for some 1 million Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The U.N. and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus would cause untold human suffering, with hospital patients and others unable to relocate. Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions crowded a main road heading away from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes continued to hammer the small, besieged territory. Palestinian witnesses said Israel struck cars rushing south, and Hamas said the strikes killed more than 70 people. The Israeli military, which has not commented on the strikes, posted...

Iran’s foreign minister warns Israel from Beirut it could suffer ‘a huge earthquake’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible.Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel. The group, which has thousands of battle-hardened fighters who participated in Syria’s 12-year conflict, also has different types of military drones.Hezbollah fighters have been on full alert along Lebanon’s borders with Israel following last Saturday’s attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas that left hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers dead.On Sat...

Bridge: Oct. 14, 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

“Simple Saturday” columns focus on basic technique and logical thinking.Counting on defense is essential. Defenders must count declarer’s points and distribution and (to determine whether to play an “active” or “passive” defense) his playing tricks. To begin, defenders must count their own sure tricks and think about where more may come from.Today’s West leads his singleton spade against four hearts. When East’s ace wins, he knows that West led a singleton and can ruff a spade return.Where can the defenders find two more tricks?OVERTRICKThey will get no clubs or trumps, so they need two diamonds. If South has the ace, he is destined to make an overtrick. But if South has the king, East must shift to the queen of diamonds. South will cover, and West wins and returns a diamond to the jack. Then East gives West his spade ruff.If in the actual deal East returns a spade at Trick Two, West ruffs, but he can only cash his ace of diamond...

Word Game: Oct. 14, 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — MISNOMER(MISNOMER: mis-NO-mer: The use of a wrong or improper name.)Average mark 40 wordsTime limit 40 minutesCan you find 48 or more words in MISNOMER?The list will be published Monday.YESTERDAY’S WORD — PUBLISHES pile plies plisse plus plush publish pule pulse push puss bile bless blip bliss blues bluish blush buses bush bushel busies buss less lieu lisp lues lush isle issue shies ship slip slub slush spiel spies spile sushi help hissTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowe...

Ask Amy: She has some nerve to invite me to the gender reveal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

Dear Amy: I am going through a divorce, and I’m having a hard time finding myself.Related ArticlesAdvice | Ask Amy: Grandma’s diary told a scandalous story. Should I track down the family? Advice | Ask Amy: I just found out that a famous entertainer is my brother. Should I reach out? Advice | Ask Amy: I know my friend took a photo without my permission, but she won’t hand it over Advice | Ask Amy: Am I wrong to display photos where he is she? Advice | Ask Amy: These are the five reasons I don’t want to go to Paris with my wife I was with my husband for a total of 14 years.I feel lost and don’t know what to do.I’ve lost a lot of my friends in the process. We were friends with “Frank and Christie,” and I noticed that they don’t care what I’m going through!Frank was my ex’s friend, but I got close to Christie. Last year she and I got together. We had too much to drink and my mouth wouldn’t...

Before They Vowed to Annihilate Hamas, Israeli Officials Considered It an Asset

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said this week that, as far as the military is concerned, there is little difference between Gaza’s civilian population and Hamas, which has governed the besieged territory since 2007. “It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians [being] not aware, not involved,” Herzog said in the middle of an unprecedented Israeli bombing campaign in retaliation for Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians last week. “They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”Herzog’s remarks represent Israeli policymakers’ longtime conflation of Hamas with all Palestinians in Gaza and often with all Palestinians everywhere. Such attitudes have hardened in the past week. The Israel Defense Forces, for example, posted that “you either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism.” Many U.S. politicians have issued similar claims. “Anyone that is pro-Palestinian is pro-Hamas,” tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga...

El poderío militar de Israel, según el índice Global Fire Power 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:42 GMT

(CNN Español) — El 7 de octubre, Hamas, el grupo islamista que controla Gaza, lanzó un ataque sorpresa a gran escala contra Israel. A la operación la llamó “Tormenta de al-Aqsa”.El portavoz de las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel (FDI), el teniente coronel Richard Hecht, dijo que los militantes de Hamas entraron en Israel por tierra, mar y aire.ANÁLISIS | Las afirmaciones explosivas sobre la guerra entre Israel y Hamas se hacen virales. Pero la verdad no siempre es tan simpleDesde entonces se contabilizan al menos 1.300 israelíes y ciudadanos de otras nacionalidades muertos, y unos 150 que presuntamente se encuentran secuestrados por Hamas. Las represalias de Israel, en tanto, han dejado más de 1.900 muertos en Gaza.Tras los ataques sorpresa de Hamas, el primer ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, declaró que el país “estaba en guerra”.¿Pero cuál es la capacidad de las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel para hacer frente a este nuevo conflicto con Hamas, el grupo extremista fundado e...