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Key takeaways from AP’s report on China’s influence in Utah

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China’s global influence campaign has been surprisingly robust and successful in Utah, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.The world’s most powerful communist country and its U.S.-based advocates have spent years building relationships with Utah officials.Legislators in the deeply conservative and religious state have responded by delaying legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixing resolutions that conveyed displeasure with China’s actions and expressing support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.The AP’s investigation relied on dozens of interviews with key players and the review of hundreds of pages of records, text messages and emails obtained through public records’ requests. Beijing’s success in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah.“Utah is an important foothold,” he said...

UK pushes on with asylum law despite rights group opposition

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The British government pushed its contentious migration bill forward in Parliament on Monday, despite a call from Europe’s top human rights organization for lawmakers to block the legislation.The Illegal Migration Bill would bar asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means, and compel the government to detain and then deport them “to their home country or a safe third country.” They would be banned from ever reentering the U.K.As the House of Commons held the first of two days of debate on the legislation, the 46-nation Council of Europe said the bill’s provisions “create clear and direct tension with well-established and fundamental human rights standards.”“It is essential that parliamentarians prevent legislation that is incompatible with the United Kingdom’s international obligations being passed,” the council’s human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatović, said in a letter to British lawmakers.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted the legislation ...

Wall Street, banks rise after SVB sale to First-Citizens

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

BANGKOK — U.S. futures shot higher early Monday, with bank stocks mostly gaining after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it had agreed to the sale of troubled Silicon Valley Bank to North Carolina-based First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each climbed 0.8% early Monday.The FDIC took control of Silicon Valley Bank after it collapsed on March 10, promising to protect all depositors. Nasdaq-traded stock of First Citizens BancShares, Inc., parent company of First-Citizens, jumped 40% in premarket trading early Monday. The acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank lender could raise confidence in the troubled banking industry after failures at SVB and two other banks rattled investors, driving bank shares sharply lower. But concerns persist that higher interest rates that are squeezing lenders could increase the likelihood of a recession. Earlier this month, shares of and faith in Credit Suisse, which has its own unique set of ...

How Netanyahu judicial plan sparked massive unrest in Israel

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul has unleashed the most intense social unrest in Israel in decades. Tens of thousands of people have repeatedly taken to the streets against the plan — including spontaneous mass demonstrations that erupted across the country late Sunday after he fired his defense minister for questioning the overhaul.The unrest showed no signs of slowing Monday. Israel’s largest trade union declared a general strike – paralyzing the country’s international airport – and thousands of people gathered outside parliament for another day of protests. The union joins business leaders, bank chiefs, fighter pilots, military reservists, academics, former security commanders and other influential sectors of society in coming out against the plan.Netanyahu delayed a speech to the nation while he huddled with advisers and coalition partners to determine his next move. Here’s a look at how Israel has been plunged into its most seriou...

Lebanon changes unpopular move to delay daylight saving time

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister reversed an unpopular decision made by his office to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month, saying Monday the Cabinet decided to implement the change in two days. Najib Mikati’s comments came after the government’s initial decision earlier this month was widely criticized around the country with many, including the country’s largest church, saying they will not abide by the decision.“The new daylight saving time will start at midnight Wednesday,” Mikati said after a Cabinet meeting that only discussed the issue. With some institutions implementing the change while others refused, many Lebanese found themselves in the position of juggling work and school schedules in different time zones — in a country that is just 88 kilometers (55 miles) at its widest point.Last week, the government said it will delay the start of daylight saving time by a month until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That led to mass confusio...

UN-backed probe cites crimes against humanity in Libya

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts said on Monday there is evidence that crimes against humanity — including sexual slavery — have been committed against Libyans and migrants in the North African country.The investigators commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council also faulted the European Union for sending support to Libyan forces that they say contributed to crimes against migrants and Libyans.The findings come in an extensive new report, based on hundreds of interviews with hundreds of people including migrants and witnesses, that wraps up a fact-finding mission created nearly three years ago to investigate rights violations and abuses in Libya.Libya was plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed, and left the country divided between rival governments on the east and west.Oil-rich but largely lawless Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants seek...

Kansas court to review pair of unenforced abortion laws

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ highest court is considering whether the state can restrict how doctors end second-trimester pregnancies or impose extra health and safety rules for abortion providers after a decisive statewide vote last year confirming that the state constitution protects abortion rights.The state Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Monday from attorneys for the state and abortion providers in two lawsuits. One challenges a 2015 law banning a common second-trimester abortion procedure, and the other challenges a 2011 law that regulates abortion providers more strictly than other health care providers. Legal challenges have blocked both laws from being enforced.The U.S. Supreme Court declared in June 2022 that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t protect abortion rights and that states can ban abortion, but the Kansas court ruled in 2019 that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the state constitution. That led the Republican-controlled Legislature t...

Cameco expects $300M refund from Canada Revenue Agency after revised reassessments

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

SASKATOON — Cameco Corp. says it expects to receive a refund of about $300 million after the Canada Revenue Agency issued revised reassessments for the 2007 through 2013 tax years.The refund includes $89 million in cash and $211 million in letters of credit, which the company had remitted based on prior reassessments CRA issued in a long-standing tax dispute.Cameco says the timing of the refund has not yet been determined.The uranium miner has been tied up for years in a dispute with the tax agency over a foreign subsidiary.Cameco has won a series of court decisions for the 2003, 2005 and 2006 tax years, however issues remain for 2007 through 2013 and the company continues to fight with CRA over those years.The company says CRA continues to hold $480 million, including $206 million in cash and $274 million in letters of credit, that it has remitted.This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:CCO)The Canadian Press

Japanese student goes to graduation dressed like Zelenskyy

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese student showed up to graduation as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s lookalike, wearing his signature olive-colored, snug-fit T-shirt and khaki trousers to show his support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Most graduation ceremonies in Japan feature graduates in suits or formal dress. But Kyoto University has its own tradition of students who opt for different attire on their special day. This year, Zelenskyy was the star at the event.“I am President Zelenskyy,” the student told local TV network Yomiuri. He said it took him three months to grow his beard. He decided to be his lookalike for the graduation ceremony Friday, because “since December, when I was growing out my beard, I was told I look like President Zelenskyy.” His performance was not just a comical cosplay. The student, who goes by Amiki on Twitter, was holding a sign carrying messages expressing his support for Ukraine, along with a passage from Zelenskyy’s speech in December at the U....

Russian shelling of Ukraine city kills 2, wounds 29 people

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:15:38 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two people were killed and 29 wounded Monday when Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, local officials said.Video footage of the aftermath showed damaged residential buildings, debris in the streets and vehicles on fire.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “terrorism.”Russia has denied targeting residential areas even though artillery and rocket strikes have hit Ukrainian apartment buildings and civilian infrastructure daily during the war. The Sloviansk attack followed a typical pattern of long-range shelling adopted by the Kremlin’s forces, especially in recent months as the fighting became deadlocked during the bitterly cold winter months.In the eastern Donetsk region, some 10 cities and villages were shelled by Russian forces over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported Monday.On Monday morning, Russian missiles hit the city of Avdiivka...