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US military chief praises Japan’s defense funding boost as a buttress against China and North Korea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The highest-ranking U.S. military officer on Friday encouraged Japan’s commitment to doubling its defense spending over the next five years, calling Tokyo’s controversial push for a stronger military crucial to confront rising threats from North Korea and China. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned Japan’s need for improvements in cruise missile defense, early warning missile systems and air capabilities, all of which would help the United States as it looks to counter North Korea’s push for a nuclear missile program capable of pinpoint-targeting the U.S. mainland and China’s increasing aggression against Taiwan, the democratic island that Beijing claims as its own. China has “invested enormously in their military, and aspire to be the regional power in the next 10 to 15 years,” Milley said.That “could be very unstable; it could be very dangerous, and I think having a powerful Japan, a militarily capa...

India is set to launch a lander and rover to explore the moon’s south pole

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

SRIHARIKOTA, India (AP) — India was set to send a spacecraft to the far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface.Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, will take off from a launch pad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover. It will embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon’s surface later in August.A successful landing would make India the fourth country — after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China — to achieve the feat.The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology.India’s previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s little-explored south p...

Moves at a small border village hike Israel-Hezbollah tensions at a time of regional jitters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

KFAR CHOUBA, Lebanon (AP) — The little village of Ghajar has been a sore point between Israel and Lebanon for years, split in two by the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But after a long period of calm, the dispute has begun to heat up again.Israel has been building a wall around the half of the village in Lebanese territory, triggering condemnation from the Lebanese militiant force Hezbollah, accusing Israel of moving to annex the site. A recent exchange of fire in the area raised alarm that the dispute could trigger violence.The growing tensions over Ghajar add to the jitters along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah fought a destructive 34-day war in the summer of 2006. The two sides have studiously avoided outright battle ever since, despite frequent flare-ups of tension — but each constantly says a new conflict could erupt at any time.The dispute over a small village in the green hills where Lebanon, Israel ...

Striking actors to begin picketing alongside writers in fight over the future of Hollywood

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Striking screen actors will begin picketing alongside writers in New York and Los Angeles on Friday in what has become the biggest Hollywood labor fight in decades.The double-barreled strike will shut down the small number of productions that continued shooting in the two months since screenwriters stopped working. Many actors made a show of solidarity on the writers’ picket lines, including Fran Drescher, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists president and former star of “The Nanny.” The union’s 65,000-member actors’ branch will now formally join them as fellow strikers.The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation, residual payments in the streaming era and putting up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television shows. The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will lik...

For a group of Ukrainian women, painting is a form of therapy to help them cope with loss

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a sunlit art studio in Kyiv filled with easels and canvases, Iryna Farion puts the finishing touches on an oil painting with a predominantly dark color palette in shades of blue and brown.The artwork depicts two intertwined trees held together by their roots, as though in embrace, and a radiant yellow sun shining against a moody blue background.“I feel like it’s me and my husband, who was killed in the war,” Farion says of the trees. “They are like two souls, like two hearts, like one body.”Farion is among thousands of Ukrainian women who have lost their partners in the war Russia launched against their homeland nearly 17 months ago. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed on the battlefield – most of them men who once led ordinary lives before dropping everything to join the fight for their country.Farion’s husband, Oleksandr Alimov, died in December after being shot on the Donetsk front line. Overwhelmed with grief, she says she has found some cons...

Brussels conference reviews developing role of renewable energy sources in Central Asia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Organized by the Brussels Energy Club, an international conference titled A Clean Energy Future for Central Asia: Building New Partnerships for the Energy Transition in a Rapidly Growing Region was held in the European Union’s capital city.The event, held in a hybrid format, was attended by the heads of diplomatic missions of the five Central Asian states, representatives of their state agencies, leading EU institutions, major energy companies, industry associations, think-tanks and the media.In his welcoming remarks, Head of the Mission of Kazakhstan in the EU Margulan Baimukhan emphasised our country’s commitment to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the commitment voiced by President of Kazakhstan to achieve decarbonisation by 2060. The Ambassador highlighted the need for greater investments both from the region’s countries and also international donor organizations towards the structural transformation of the energy sector in the region.Recalling the agreement on stra...

Burglary suspects out of O.C. lead CHP in pursuit into L.A. County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Authorities with the California Highway Patrol were in pursuit of a driver and two passengers who were wanted for a burglary out of Orange County. The suspects were leading officers in a chase on the northbound lanes of the 57 Freeway north of Brea before transitioning to the westbound 60 Freeway. Later, the chase moved to the northbound 710 Freeway. Sky5 picked up the pursuit as the suspects were speeding through northbound lanes of the 101 Freeway, weaving in and out of traffic as CHP officers followed close behind. After exiting the freeway at Rampart, the suspects bailed out of the vehicle and ran into the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, near Bellevue Avenue and Coronado Street. Officers with CHP also exited their cruisers and were searching for the suspects in the neighborhood. Authorities were also circling the area from the air. Before long, one of the suspects was taken into custody. Two of the three burglary suspects seen bailing the pursuit car on the Rampart ramp o...

Minnesota United hosts Los Angeles FC after shutout victory

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Los Angeles FC (10-6-6, third in the Western Conference) vs. Minnesota United FC (7-8-6, 11th in the Western Conference)Saint Paul, Minnesota; Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EDTFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLS LINE: LAFC +149, Minnesota United FC +159, Draw +261; over/under is 2.5 goalsBOTTOM LINE: A game after shutting out the Houston Dynamo 3-0, Minnesota United plays Los Angeles FC.United is 7-5-4 against conference opponents. United is eighth in the Western Conference with 95 shots on goal, averaging 4.5 per game.LAFC is 9-6-5 in conference matchups. LAFC is 6-4 in one-goal games.The teams meet Saturday for the first time this season.TOP PERFORMERS: Bongokuhle Hlongwane has scored six goals with one assist for United. Emanuel Reynoso has three goals and one assist over the last 10 games.Denis Bouanga has scored 12 goals with two assists for LAFC. Carlos Vela has three goals over the last 10 games.LAST 10 GAMES: United: 4-3-3, averaging 1.5 goals, 5.4 shots on goal and 6.0 corner kicks per game while...

Fran Drescher responde a las críticas por su viaje a Italia y su foto con Kim Kardashian días antes de la huelga de los SAG

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

(CNN) — Fran Drescher, presidenta del sindicato SAG-AFTRA, respondió el jueves a las críticas por haber viajado a Italia para asistir a las fiestas de Alta Moda de Dolce & Gabbana el pasado fin de semana, cuando su sindicato de actores, formado por 160.000 miembros, se enfrentaba a la fecha límite para declararse en huelga.En una rueda de prensa ese mismo día —durante la cual Drescher anunció oficialmente que el sindicato irá a la huelga después de que fracasaran las conversaciones con los principales estudios y streamers de Hollywood— se le preguntó por la “óptica” de haber sido vista tomándose una “selfie” con Kim Kardashian en el evento en Italia.“Eso no fue una selfie”, dijo Drescher, y añadió después: “Soy embajadora de marca de una empresa de moda y Kim también lo es. Había conocido a Kim apenas segundos antes de que se hiciera esa foto publicitaria”.Añadió que “no tenía nada que ver con estar en una fiesta divirt...

Putin gives his account of post-mutiny Prigozhin meeting, insists ‘PMC Wagner does not exist’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin has given his own account of a June 29 meeting with Wagner mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin and his men in the Kremlin after the paramilitary group’s aborted mutiny, claiming he gave the fighters an opportunity to continue fighting in Ukraine. Speaking to a reporter from Russia’s state-controlled Kommersant newspaper on Thursday, Putin said 35 Wagner fighters accompanied Prigozhin to the three-hour meeting in the Kremlin last month. The Russian president said he offered Wagner troops several options, including continuing to operate under the command of someone he identified by the call sign “Sedoy,” meaning “Gray-haired,” whom they had served under for 16 months. “All of them could have gathered in one place and continued to serve,” Putin said, “and nothing would have changed for them. They would have been led by the same person who has been their real commander all this time.” “Many people nodded...