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Watchdog: World military spending up to an all-time high

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Global military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2.24 trillion, with a sharp rise in Europe, chiefly due to Russian and Ukrainian expenditure, a Swedish think tank said Monday.Spending globally increased by 3.7% in real terms, but military expenditure in Europe was up 13% — its steepest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said in a report. Military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia “strongly influenced many other states’ spending decisions.”The independent Swedish watchdog said that last year, the three largest arms spenders were the United States, China and Russia, who between them accounted for 56% of global expenditure.‘The rise “is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,” said Nan Tian, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program. Several states significantly incre...

Kenya president says cult deaths akin to terrorism

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan President William Ruto said Monday that the starvation deaths of dozens of followers of a pastor in the south of the country is akin to terrorism.He said the pastor, Paul Makenzi, who is in police custody belongs to jail and not to any religion.“Mr. Makenzi … pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact he is a terrible criminal,” Ruto said.Makenzi was arrested on suspicion of telling his followers to fast to death in order to meet Jesus. A group of emaciated people were rescued alive, but some of those later died. Authorities then turned their attention to dozens of apparent shallow graves on Makenzi’s land.The total death toll now stands at 47, with 39 bodies exhumed over the weekend, said a statement from the Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, who is visiting the area.The Kenya Red Cross Society on Sunday said 112 people had been reported missing at a tracing desk set up at Malindi, where the pastor’s main church was located.Ruto...

Moscow court rejects appeal from cafe bombing suspect

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A suspect in a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger had her appeal rejected Monday by a court in the Russian capital.Moscow City Court turned down Darya Trepova’s appeal against her arrest on charges of involvement in the April 2 bombing that killed Vladlen Tatarsky and injured 50 others at a St. Petersburg cafe. It upheld a lower court ruling that ordered Trepova to remain in custody for two months pending investigation.Tatarsky, 40, an ardent supporter of the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine who filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines, was killed as he led a discussion at a riverside cafe in the historic heart of Russia’s second-largest city. Trepova, a 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident who was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with a statuette moments before the blast, was quickly arrested. Russian media reported that Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the statuette but didn’t know what was i...

9 teenagers injured in shooting at prom after-party in Texas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gunfire at a huge prom after-party at a home in Texas injured nine teenagers, and a second shooting in a nearby city is being investigated for a possible connection, officials said.Sheriff’s deputies in Jasper County, in East Texas, arrived in the wee hours of Sunday at a home where about 250 people were partying, authorities said. They found nine victims with gunshot wounds that didn’t appear to be life-threatening, according to a statement by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.Eight people were taken in personal vehicles to Jasper Memorial Hospital, and at least one of them was transferred to a hospital in nearby Beaumont, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Karli Cherry said. One person did not go to the hospital, she said. A second shooting within the city of Jasper occurred shortly after the first, the statement said. There were no injuries in the second shooting, but a connection is being investigated because of a “common vehicle ...

Hundreds of migrants reach Italian isle; 20 reported missing

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

ROME (AP) — Taking advantage of the return of calm seas, migrant smugglers launched a score of boats from Tunisia at the weekend, and their passengers reached a tiny Italian island by the hundreds. A body was found in one of the boats, Italian news reports said, and passengers said many other people from that boat were missing.Dozens of the migrants sat Monday morning near Lampedusa’s port awaiting transfer to the island’s overcrowded shelter or eventually to Sicily or the Italian mainland. Earlier Monday, a fishing boat off Lampedusa aided a distressed migrant boat that contained 34 survivors and a body, the Italian news agency ANSA said. Survivors reportedly told rescuers that some 20 fellow passengers were missing from the boat that had set out from a Tunisian port on Saturday night.On Sunday, with seas calm after four days of rough conditions, a total of 640 migrants reached Lampedusa, while 179 migrants stepped ashore from four boats early Monday. In many cases, Italian c...

Editorial Roundup: Texas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

Austin American-Statesman. April 21, 2023. Editorial: House bill rewards companies at expense of our schoolsAfter the Texas Legislature allowed a controversial corporate property tax rebate known as Chapter 313 to expire last year, House Speaker Dade Phelan vowed lawmakers would return to Austin this year with a better plan to lure big business to the state.The new version would be more transparent and allow for more accountability and oversight than Chapter 313, Phelan said, referring to the now defunct program designed to attract companies to Texas in exchange for school property tax breaks.Instead, with little more than five weeks left in the legislative session, the House is contemplating passing something worse — House Bill 5, a less transparent and potentially far more costly tax incentive program than Chapter 313, which forfeited tens of billions of dollars in school property taxes in order to lure new businesses to local school districts. Supporters of HB 5, including numero...

Spain exhumes fascist party founder from mausoleum

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The body of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Spain’s fascist Falange movement, will be exhumed from a Madrid mausoleum on Monday and transferred to a city cemetery.The fascist political leader was executed by Spanish Republicans in November 1936, after Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of soldiers in July of that year to bring down Spain’s democratically elected government. The ensuing civil war ended in 1939 with hundreds of thousands dead and the country left in ruins.Primo de Rivera’s death was exploited by Franco. He is being exhumed in line with updated legislation that bans the glorification of Spain’s dictatorship and fascist legacy. His body lies in a huge complex known as the Valley of the Fallen, which was built with forced prison labor to commemorate the fascist victory in the civil war.After Franco won the war in 1939, he ruled the country with an iron fist until his death in 1975. He was himself laid to rest in the V...

Credit Suisse saw $69 billion in outflows at start of 2023

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Ailing bank Credit Suisse on Monday reported over 61 billion Swiss francs (nearly $69 billion) in outflows in the first three months of the year, when Switzerland’s government arranged for its takeover by rival UBS, and said clients are still withdrawing assets.The Zurich-based bank cited the “significant net asset outflows” as it posted results skewed by an emergency rescue that was orchestrated by Switzerland’s financial markets regulator and included the wipeout of some 15 billion Swiss francs in higher-risk bonds. Some of those investors are now suing over the losses.The takeover by UBS is expected to close in the coming months and was designed in part to help stabilize the global financial system that had been roiled by the collapse of two U.S. banks. The reputation of 167-year-old Credit Suisse had been pummeled in recent years over stock price declines, a string of scandals and the flight of customers worried about the bank’s future. The tailspin accelerated in ...

Arson investigation underway after 2 children injured, 1 critically, on South Side

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

CHICAGO — Two children are hospitalized following an arson fire at a home on the city's South Side Sunday night.Fire crews were called to a home in the 6100 block of South Carpenter Street in the Englewood neighborhood just after 11:30 p.m. Police said the fire started after some type of incendiary device was ignited and thrown at the back of the house.A man and five children were inside the home when the fire started. Officials said he and four of the children escaped unharmed.Firefighters entered the home and rescued the fifth child, a 4-year-old boy. He was transported to Comer Children's Hospital in critical condition after suffering smoke inhalation. Man dead after shooting in Niles nightclub parking lot A 9-year-old boy was also taken to the hospital and treated. He is in good condition.No suspects are in custody for the arson. Officials are investigating.

Monday Forecast: Freeze Warning in morning, temps in low 50s

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:20:14 GMT

CHICAGO — A Freeze Warning is in effect until 8 a.m. Monday with increasing clouds. Winds: W 5-10 G15. High: 52. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Mostly cloudy tonight with slight early morning rain chance. Winds: SSW 5-10. Low: 39.Tuesday Forecast: Mostly cloudy with 40% chance of scattered rain chance, cooler lakeside. Winds: N 5-10 G15. High: 48/45.Full forecast details at the WGN Weather Center