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Guard actions in Mexico fire seen as key to who lived, died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — When a fire broke out at a Mexican immigration detention facility last month, dramatically different reactions by guards in the men’s and women’s sections appeared to make a difference in who lived and died, according to previously unreported surveillance videos and witness statements viewed by The Associated Press.Forty male detainees perished in the March 27 blaze, allegedly started by a male migrant in protest of their rumored transfer from the facility in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. All 15 of the female detainees safely escaped from their side of the facility as it began to fill with smoke. The videos show that in the hours before the fire, the deadliest ever at migration detention center in the country, private security guards contracted by Mexico’s immigration agency used keys to open the men’s section to allow cleaning personnel to enter and to bring them large jugs of water.However once the fire started, no one tried to ...

Police make 6th arrest in Alabama Sweet 16 party shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Investigators on Thursday charged a sixth person with reckless murder in connection with a deadly shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party, saying in court documents they believe gunmen shot into the crowd during the celebration. Investigators said in court documents filed Thursday that they believe five of those charged were present at the party on April 15 and “discharged firearms into the crowd,” resulting in the deaths of four people. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency on Thursday night announced the arrest of a 15-year-old juvenile from Tuskegee, Alabama, the sixth person charged in the case, but court records were not released because of the person’s age. All six face reckless murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting, the state agency said. The Sweet 16 birthday, at a dance studio just off the town square, was in full swing when gunfire erupted. Investigators have not discussed a motive or what they believe led to the shooting. The s...

2 men wrongly convicted in California are declared innocent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two men who served nearly 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of attempted murder after a 2004 shooting were declared innocent Thursday by a California judge. Under a new law, the state is required to pay them each $140 for every day they spent behind bars, or about $900,000. The verdicts for Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford concluded a new trial that began in October after a state appeals court panel vacated their convictions and they were freed in 2020. The proceedings included a dramatic confession by the actual shooter, Chad Brandon McZeal, a gang member who’s serving a life sentence for murder in an unrelated case, the defense team said. After the judge ruled, Glass and Rayford embraced each other and their attorneys. Outside the courthouse, the men were cheered by family members and supporters. Rayford, clutching his baby daughter, called it an “amazing” feeling to have their records finally wiped clean and their reputations restored. “I thought ab...

Twitter scraps ‘government-funded media’ tag on public broadcasters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

Twitter removed the “government-funded media” tag on public broadcasters including the CBC Thursday without any explanation.The move came after the Global Task Force for public media called on Twitter earlier in the day to correct its description of public broadcasters in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.The group chaired by CBC president Catherine Tait had said Twitter applied the label without warning to the accounts of CBC/Radio-Canada; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, known as ABC; the Korean Broadcasting System, or KBS; and Radio New Zealand, or RNZ. It noted that Twitter’s own policy defines government-funded media as those that may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.The task force said that was not the case here, where editorial independence is protected in law and enshrined in editorial policies.It said the most accurate label would be “publicly funded media.”Twitter initially labelled several accounts with...

Haley vs. Scott: From South Carolina allies to 2024 rivals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As she introduced South Carolina’s next senator, then-Gov. Nikki Haley said her decision to appoint Tim Scott was “pretty simple.”“This man loves South Carolina,” Haley said of Scott, a congressman at the time. “He is very aware that what he does and every vote he makes affects South Carolina and affects our country. And so it was with that that I knew he was the right person.”Scott was just as effusive, praising Haley as someone who governed with “conviction” and “integrity.” He pledged to “get on the team with Nikki Haley to make sure that all of America continues to hear the great things about South Carolina.”Haley and Scott are forever linked by that announcement at the South Carolina Statehouse on a winter day in 2012, cementing their status as rising stars in a Republican Party frustrated by Barack Obama’s reelection just a month earlier. But nearly a dozen years later, they find themselves poised to run against each other for the GOP presiden...

UK foreign secretary leaves Pacific early to focus on Sudan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly cut short a Pacific tour Friday to return to Britain and deal with the deteriorating situation in Sudan.Sudan’s military ruled out negotiations with a rival paramilitary force Thursday, saying it would only accept its surrender as the two sides continued to battle in central Khartoum and other parts of the country.The British High Commission said Cleverly had been dealing with the Sudan situation from its offices in Wellington by making a series of calls to key partners overnight.Cleverly left from New Zealand a day before he was due to meet with his counterpart, Nanaia Mahuta. He’d arrived in New Zealand earlier than scheduled Thursday on his first official visit to the country after skipping a planned visit to Samoa and flying in directly from the Solomon Islands.“It’s with real regret that due to the ongoing situation in Sudan I’ve had to cut the visit short,” Cleverly said in a statement....

Leaving drama behind, GOP warms to McCarthy in debt fight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last Republican holdout in the grueling race for Kevin McCarthy to become House speaker, firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, may be a surprisingly easier vote to get when it comes to passing the House Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling.That’s because the 320-page debt ceiling package McCarthy has drafted includes many long-sought conservative priorities — a rollback of current spending levels, a cap on future spending, work requirements for government aid recipients — that Gaetz, the House Freedom Caucus and other factions demanded.Rather than drag McCarthy down with painstaking internal party battles over the debt ceiling bill, House Republican lawmakers are looking to prop up their leader, get behind the bill and take the spending fight to President Joe Biden at the White House.“I’m not looking to spit in the face of the gift horse,” Gaetz, R-Fla., told reporters at the Capitol as he weighs how he will vote.“If you took this plan, and the plan that the Ho...

Supreme Court set to decide on access to abortion pill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is facing a self-imposed Friday night deadline to decide whether women’s access to a widely used abortion pill will stay unchanged or be restricted while a legal challenge to its Food and Drug Administration approval goes on.The justices are weighing arguments that allowing restrictions contained in lower-court rulings to take effect would severely disrupt the availability of the drug, mifepristone, which is used in the most common abortion method in the United States.It has repeatedly been found to be safe and effective, and has been used by more than 5 million women in the U.S. since the FDA approved it in 2000.The Supreme Court had initially said it would decide by Wednesday whether the restrictions could take effect while the case continues. A one-sentence order signed by Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday gave the justices two additional days, without explanation.The justices are scheduled to meet for a private conference Friday, where t...

Stock market today: Asian shares follow Wall Street lower

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

NEW YORK — Shares were weaker in Asia on Friday, tracking a decline on Wall Street following mixed earnings reports from big companies and more signals the U.S. economy may be slowing. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index edged 0.1% to 28,638.24. The Kospi in Seoul dropped 0.8% to 2,542.72. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up 0.6% to 20,274.42. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney lost 0.3% to 7,337.40, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.5% to 3,349.56. On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 4,129.79 after drifting listlessly earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% to 33,786.62, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.8% to 12,059.56. Tesla weighed heavily on the market for a second straight day on worries about how much profit it’s making on each of its electric vehicles. It dropped 9.7% after reporting revenue for the first three months of the year that fell short of analysts’ expectations as it repeatedly cut prices on its models. Several banks also dropped after rep...

Poll: Biden 2024 splits Dems but most would back him in Nov.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Only about half of Democrats think President Joe Biden should run again in 2024, a new poll shows, but a large majority say they’d be likely to support him if he became the nominee.The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 26% of Americans overall want to see Biden run again — a slight recovery from the 22% who said that in January. Forty-seven percent of Democrats say they want him to run, also up slightly from only 37% who said that in January. The ambivalence among Democratic voters comes as Biden is preparing to formally announce his 2024 reelection campaign as soon as next week, according to people briefed on the discussions. The president has been eyeing Tuesday, April 25 — four years to the day since he entered the 2020 race — although no final decisions have been made. Despite the reluctance of many Democrats to see Biden run for another term, 78% of them say they approve of the job he’s doing as president. And a to...