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Swedish lawmakers vote to endorse country joining NATO

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish lawmakers overwhelmingly voted Wednesday in favor of Sweden joining NATO, signing off on the country’s membership along with the required legislation. The 349-seat Riksdagen, or parliament, authorized Sweden’s accession to NATO on a 269-37 vote, with 43 lawmakers absent. It was the last required domestic hurdle to the country becoming part of the 30-member Western military alliance. Six of the eight parties represented in parliament were in favor of NATO membership, and the vote that followed a nearly seven-hour debate was seen as a formality.“Membership in NATO is the best way to safeguard Sweden’s security,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said during the deliberations. He called it “a historical event” and “one of the most important security policy decisions ever for our country.”Both Sweden and neighboring applied to join NATO in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Two NATO countrie...

Man wanted in series of violent assaults in North York

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

Toronto police are searching for a 42-year-old man wanted in a series of violent assaults in North York over a three-month period. Police say they were first called to an apartment building in the area of Jane Street and Falstaff Avenue on Christmas Day last year after a man allegedly broke down a door using a sledgehammer and assaulted the victim in the apartment. The man allegedly contacted the victim on March 11, 2023, threatening to kill them. He then went to the victim’s home and damaged their car. Over a week later, on March 20, police were once again called to the same address after the man allegedly showed up at the victim’s home and once again damaged their car. Police say Reginald Cuff is facing over 20 charges including assault with a weapon, threatening death and criminal harassment. Cuff is described as being five-foot-six, 160 pounds with a medium build, a black goatee and long black hair usually worn in shoulder-length dreadlocks. Anyone with information o...

Andrew Tate to remain in Romanian detention for 30 more days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Romanian court on Wednesday ruled for the fourth time to extend by 30 days the preventative arrest of Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who is held on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking, an official said.Tate, 36, a British-U.S. citizen who has 5.4 million Twitter followers, was initially detained in late December in Romania’s capital Bucharest, along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women. None of the four has yet been formally indicted.Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said that a judge at the Bucharest Tribunal agreed on Wednesday to a request by prosecutors to keep all four detained while investigations continue. They can be held for a maximum of 180 days without being formally indicted.Wednesday’s ruling comes after a Bucharest court last week rejected a bail request from Andrew Tate, who is expected to appeal Wednesday’s extension, as he has done against the...

Brazil assassination plot targeted in massive police raid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Federal police raided locations in several states Wednesday to crack down on a crime gang accused of plotting assassinations and kidnappings of public officials including a former judge who presided over Brazil’s biggest corruption case.About 120 agents carried out 24 search and seizure warrants and 11 arrest warrants in the states of Sao Paulo, Parana, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondonia, police said in a statement, which did not name the suspects or their intended targets.A Federal Police official confirmed that one of the targets was Sen. Sérgio Moro, who as a judge presided over the Carwash bribery and money laundering case that opened in 2014 and eventually ensnared current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.Moro said on Twitter he had been targeted for retaliation by one of Brazil’s most notorious drug trafficking gangs, known as the First Capital Command. He thanked the police f...

‘Deeply troubling’: UN rights chief on Uganda anti-gay bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The United Nations rights chief is urging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to block an anti-LGBTQ bill that prescribes harsh penalties for some homosexual offenses, including death and life imprisonment.“The passing of this discriminatory bill – probably among the worst of its kind in the world – is a deeply troubling development,” Volker Turk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Wednesday. Uganda’s legislature passed the bill late Tuesday in a protracted plenary session during which last-minute changes were made to the legislation that originally included penalties of up to 10 years in jail for homosexual offenses. In the version passed by lawmakers the offense of “aggravated homosexuality” now carries the death penalty. Aggravated homosexuality applies in cases of sex relations involving those infected with HIV as well as minors and other categories of vulnerable people. According to the bill, a suspect convicted of “attem...

What made Beethoven sick? DNA from his hair offers clues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 200 years after Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, researchers pulled DNA from strands of his hair, searching for clues about the health problems and hearing loss that plagued him.They weren’t able to crack the case of the German composer’s deafness or severe stomach ailments. But they did find a genetic risk for liver disease, plus a liver-damaging hepatitis B infection in the last months of his life.These factors, along with his chronic drinking, were probably enough to cause the liver failure that is widely believed to have killed him, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology.This Sunday marks the 196th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in Vienna on March 26, 1827, at the age of 56. The composer himself wrote that he wanted doctors to study his health problems after he died.“With Beethoven in particular, it is the case that illnesses sometimes very much limited his creative work,” said study author Axel Schmi...

Dick Van Dyke crashes car in Malibu, suffers minor injuries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

(KTLA) – Dick Van Dyke was involved in a solo car crash last Wednesday in California, TMZ first reported.The actor’s vehicle apparently slid and crashed into a gate in Malibu, police sources told the entertainment website. Arriving officers found Van Dyke behind the wheel of his 2018 Lexus LS 500. The 97-year-old was also bleeding from the nose and mouth, TMZ reported, citing law enforcement sources.The Malibu Police Department confirmed to CNN that the actor suffered only “minor injuries.”TMZ reported that Van Dyke chose not to go to a hospital. Police sources reportedly told the outlet that they submitted a request for the “Mary Poppins” star to retake his driving test. Here’s when, where California’s next atmospheric river will hit the hardest While there’s no confirmation rain played a factor, it’s no secret that roadways have been slick due to the massive amounts of rainfall that have hit the region over the past two days.The accident comes a decade after the “Chitty Chi...

Massive seaweed belt still on track to hit US: When will it arrive?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – A giant seaweed belt twice the width of the United States has its sights set on Florida, where it could wreak havoc as it washes ashore. The 5,000-mile-wide bloom is a belt of sargassum, a floating brown algae that usually floats in the Atlantic. The problems start when it comes on land and starts to rot. As it decays, sargassum lets off hydrogen sulfide and smells like rotten eggs, explains the Florida Department of Health. It can irritate people's eyes, nose and throat, and trigger breathing issues for people with asthma. Some sargassum has already started washing up in Florida, the health department said Friday, but the worst is unfortunately still to come. Scientists are closely monitoring satellite imagery to identify areas where beaching may occur. These states could be on daylight saving time permanently if new bill passes "The motion, extent, and density of Sargassum is very complex – it grows, sinks, and moves according to ocean currents, winds, and...

Recession chances have jumped, JPMorgan strategists say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

(The Hill) -- JPMorgan Chase strategists warned clients on Monday that recession chances have increased amid the recent banking crises.Even as the Federal Reserve is set to make a key decision on whether to continue to raise interest rates on Wednesday, the strategists suggested that it may not be able to avert a recession, Fortune reported. “The Fed is facing a difficult task on Wednesday, but it is likely already past the point of no return,” the strategists said, per Fortune. “A soft landing now looks unlikely, with the airplane in a tailspin (lack of market confidence) and engines about to turn off (bank lending).”“Even if central bankers successfully contain contagion, credit conditions look set to tighten more rapidly because of pressure from both markets and regulators,” they added. Why millions of people could lose Medicaid next month After the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this month, the federal government has attempte...

DuPage County moves to better assist domestic violence victims

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:19 GMT

DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. — A new initiative is coming to DuPage County aimed at helping victims of domestic violence to access resources in a safe and discrete manner.DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, the Honorable Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh, Presiding Judge of Specialty and Juvenile Courts Division, and Diana Hightower, Coordinator of the DuPage Family Violence Coordinating Council, plan to discuss the details at a Wednesday press conference. Superbug fungus cases rose dramatically during pandemic Other DuPage County elected and community leaders are also scheduled to be present at the event.WGN plans to livestream the press conference within this story beginning at approximately 11 a.m.