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Ecuador election council sets presidential vote for Aug. 20

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s National Electoral Council announced on Tuesday that early presidential elections would be held on Aug. 20 after President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree last week and brought forward the vote scheduled for 2025.Lasso’s decision to dissolve the opposition-led legislature came as lawmakers tried to impeach him for not stopping a deal between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company, accusations he denies. In disbanding the assembly, the president made first use of an option available to him under the constitution in conflicts with the legislative branch. Elections had to be called within three months, for both the assembly and presidency, and the winners will serve out what would otherwise have been the remainder of the terms of those elected officials. If there is no outright winner a runoff vote will be held in October. Lasso can choose to run in the presidential election. In the meanti...

Tatum scores 33, Celtics stave off elimination by topping Heat 116-99 in Game 4

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Down nine early in the third quarter, down 3-0 in the series, the Boston Celtics knew their season was completely on the brink.Three minutes later, everything looked different.Jayson Tatum had 33 points and 11 rebounds, Jaylen Brown added 17 points and the Celtics staved off elimination in the Eastern Conference finals by running away in the second half to beat the Miami Heat 116-99 in Game 4 on Tuesday night.“We were just trying to save our season,” Tatum said.They most definitely found a way to do that. The two big differences: a 30-point edge for the Celtics on 3-pointers, and an 18-0 run in that three-minute, third-quarter spurt that changed the game and — they hope — might end up changing the series.“We can’t relax,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We have to keep the same level of intensity, the same mindset, the same focus in the next game.”Derrick White scored 16 points, Grant Williams had 14, Al Horford added 12 and Marcus Smart scored 11 for the ...

Cambodian land activists arrested for allegedly inciting farmers to hate the rich

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Three Cambodian land rights activists who were arrested on charges of plotting against the government planned to provoke a peasant revolution by teaching farmers about class divisions between rich and poor, an official said Tuesday.Theng Savoeun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, and his colleagues Nhel Pheap and Than Hach were charged Monday by a court in the country’s northeast with plotting against the state and incitement to commit a felony, said Am Sam Ath of the local rights group Licadho.He said plotting against the government carries a possible prison term of five to 10 years, while incitement to commit a felony is punishable by six months to two years. He described the charges as sending “a message of intimidation” to civil society groups.The three suspects were not available for comment and their lawyers were not immediately reachable.A senior government official likened their nonviolent activities to what the communist K...

Half of US public approves of Washington’s arms deliveries to Ukraine in war’s 2nd year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like the blue and yellow flags that popped up around the U.S. when Russia invaded Ukraine 15 months ago, U.S. popular support for Washington’s backing of Ukraine has faded a little but remains widespread, a survey by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and NORC shows.It found that half of the people in the U.S. support the Pentagon’s ongoing supply of weapons to Ukraine for its defense against Russian forces. That level is nearly unchanged in the past year, while about a quarter are opposed to sustaining the military lifeline that has now topped $37 billion. Big majorities among both Democrats and Republicans believe Russia’s attack on Ukraine was unjustified, according to the poll, taken last month. And about three out of four people in the U.S. support the United States playing at least some role in the conflict, the survey found.The findings are in line with what Ukraine’s ambassador says she sees when she mak...

1st seditious conspiracy sentences in Jan. 6 attack to be handed down for Rhodes, other Oath Keepers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and members of his antigovernment group will be the first Jan. 6 defendants sentenced for seditious conspiracy in a series of hearings beginning this week that will set the standard for more punishments of far-right extremists to follow.Prosecutors will urge the judge on Thursday to put Rhodes behind bars for 25 years, which would be the harshest sentence by far handed down in the U.S. Capitol attack. Describing the Oath Keepers’ actions as “terrorism,” the Justice Department says stiff punishments are crucial to send a message to future possible instigators of political violence. “The justice system’s reaction to January 6 bears the weighty responsibility of impacting whether January 6 becomes an outlier or a watershed moment,” prosecutors wrote in court papers this month. The hearings will begin Wednesday, when prosecutors and defense lawyers are expected to argue over legal issues concerning sentencing and begin he...

Indian Prime Minister Modi strikes new agreements on migration and green hydrogen in Australia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck new agreements Wednesday with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on migration and green hydrogen, while raising concerns about attacks on Hindu temples in Sydney.Modi was welcomed Tuesday by around 20,000 cheering fans, many chanting “Modi,” at a Sydney stadium for his second visit to Australia as India’s leader. But his visit has also been protested by activists who accuse his government of restricting Muslim and other minorities’ rights, as well as press freedom. Anti-Modi posters appeared around Sydney, and Hindu temples in Sydney’s west were recently vandalized. Sikhs have also used the visit to demand a separate state.Modi, a Hindu, said he had raised the issue of attacks on temples with Albanese, who assured him that authorities would take “strict actions” against the culprits.“We will not accept any elements that harm the friendly and warm ties between India and Australia by their actions or thoughts,” Mo...

Trump’s freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness speaking style draws legal attention amid probes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump speaks about his legal woes in a way that would make most defense attorneys wince.A recent sampling: In a March interview on Fox News, the former president said he had “the right to take” classified documents with him to his Florida resort and wouldn’t say he hadn’t looked at the records since leaving office. During a CNN town hall this month, Trump said he told a Georgia elections official “you owe me” votes in the 2020 election.At the same town hall on May 10 he insulted a female writer as a “wack job” — only a day after that same woman, E. Jean Carroll, won a $5 million judgment against him in a civil suit alleging defamation and sexual assault. On Monday, Carroll amended a lawsuit to hold him liable for the town hall remarks.Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has never hesitated to offer his opinion or joust with his antagonists. The problem, legal experts say, is that the former president is under intensi...

North Carolina gerrymander ruling gives electoral gift to GOP in Congress

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina redistricting ruling has set up a possible electoral windfall for congressional Republicans in preserving their U.S. House majority next year, declaring that judges should stay out of scrutinizing seat boundaries for partisan advantage.While Democrats only need to flip five GOP seats overall to regain control, experts say the state Supreme Court decision means four Democratic incumbents in the state — three of them first-term members — are vulnerable.Meanwhile, litigation involving congressional maps in states such as Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Ohio and Texas could also rework district lines and alter the 2024 electoral map. The legal guardrails on redistricting are in an unusual state of flux. State and federal courts both were active in striking down congressional maps during the most recent bonanza of redrawing legislative lines based on once-a-decade census data. Additional action by the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks could spark n...

Pennsylvania high court to consider plan to make power plants pay for greenhouse gas emissions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will take its first crack at whether a governor can force power plant owners to pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, or whether he first needed approval from a Legislature that refused to go along with the plan.Hanging in the balance is Pennsylvania’s effort to become the first major fossil fuel-producing state to adopt carbon pricing.On Wednesday, the state’s highest court will hear arguments on whether a lower court was right to halt Pennsylvania’s participation in a multistate consortium that imposes a price and declining cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.The way the justices react could give hints as to how they might ultimately rule on whether Pennsylvania’s participation — without legislative approval — is constitutional.It is no small amount of money: Pennsylvania would have raised more than $1 billion had it begun participating in 2022 when former Gov. Tom Wolf intended, a...

Debt ceiling talks stuck on classic problem: Republicans demand spending cuts and Democrats resist

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:13 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Debt ceiling negotiations are locked on a classic problem that has vexed, divided and disrupted Washington before: Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy want to roll back federal government spending, while President Joe Biden and other Democrats do not.Time is short to strike a deal before a deadline as soon as June 1, when the Treasury says the government risks running out of cash to pay its bills. Negotiators are expected to convene Wednesday for another round of talks as frustration mounts. The political standoff is edging the country closer to a crisis, roiling financial markets and threatening the global economy. “They’ve got to acknowledge that we’re spending too much,” said McCarthy.Cheered on by a hard-charging conservative House majority that hoisted him to power, McCarthy, R-Calif., was not swayed by a White House counter-offer to freeze spending instead. “A freeze is not going to work,” McCarthy said.The longstanding Washington debate over the ...