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Angelenos To Protest Florida Immigration Bill Thursday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

Angelenos will protest at Placita Olvera in downtown L.A. Thursday as part of a nationwide protest against Florida’s SB1718 immigration law.The rally will begin at 9 a.m. on Olvera Street, followed by a march at 11 a.m.The protest is being organized by the Mobilize 4 Immigrants coalition, with a second protest planned in the Orange County city of Santa Ana at 5 p.m.These efforts are in addition to a nationwide labor strike that has caught fire on social media, asking supporters to not work or shop and instead join a local rally, such as the ones being held in L.A. and Santa Ana.“This is a community-led labor strike in solidarity with our indigenous immigrant community,” the organizers wrote on their call to action. “We can put a stop to these anti-immigrant bills by boycotting. Enough is enough.”A push on social media has also led to talks of Latino truck drivers striking Thursday, possibly putting stress on deliveries meant for Florida.Florida’s ...

4-year-old girl injured in Oakland shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

(KRON) -- A 4-year-old girl was shot Wednesday night, the Oakland Police Department confirmed to KRON4. The shooting happened on the 3400 block of 68th Avenue just before 9 p.m. The victim was located inside a home and taken to Highland Hospital.The nature and circumstances of the shooting remain unclear, police said. This is a developing story. Stick with KRON4 for updates.

‘Kosovo is the heart of Serbia’ — Djokovic doubles down: ‘I would say it again’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

Serbia’s star tennis player Novak Djokovic stood behind his controversial comments that “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia,” which had prompted fierce criticism from the French sports minister. “I would say it again, but I don’t need to because you have my quotes,” Djokovic told reporters at Roland-Garros after his second-round victory late Wednesday night at the French Open tennis tournament, according to French newswire AFP.“I’m aware that a lot of people would disagree, but it is what it is,” the 22-time Grand Slam winner added. “It’s something that I stand for.”Djokovic, one of the most successful athletes in tennis history and a superstar in his home country Serbia, sparked criticism Monday at the Paris tournament. “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence,” Djokovic wrote in Serbian on a TV camera screen after his first-round win.Clashes between police and Kosovo Serb protesters in n...

Decorated Australian war veteran unlawfully killed prisoners in Afghanistan, judge says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s most decorated living war veteran unlawfully killed prisoners and committed other war crimes in Afghanistan, a judge ruled Thursday in dismissing the claims by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith that he was defamed by media.Federal Court judge Anthony Besanko ruled that the articles published in 2018 were substantially true about a number of war crimes committed by Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service Regiment corporal who now is a media company executive.Besanko found Roberts-Smith, who was also awarded the Medal of Gallantry for his Afghan war service, “broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement” and disgraced Australia through his conduct.Proven allegations included that Roberts-Smith, the son of a judge, killed a prisoner who had a prosthetic leg by firing a machine gun into the man’s back in 2009. He kept the man’s prosthetic as a novelty beer drinking vessel.The accusations also included Roberts-Smith had kicked ...

Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s capital kills at least 3 people, wounds others

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched yet another aerial bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding others, authorities said.Following a reported 17 drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital in May, Russian forces hit the capital in the early morning with ground-launched missiles. The Kyiv City Administration reported one child was among the dead, and 10 people were wounded. The casualty toll was the most from one attack on Kyiv in the past month. The attack also damaged apartment buildings, a medical clinic, a water pipeline and cars. Earlier, the city government had said that two children were killed before revising the number to one.Ukraine’s General Staff reported that the Air Forces intercepted all 10 missiles, which it identified as short-range Iskander cruise and ballistic missiles.One explosion sent missile fragments ripping into an apartment building in a leafy neighborhood. In the morning light, paramedics escorted an elderly woman ...

Jordan’s royal wedding day gets underway with surprise arrival of Britain’s William and Kate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s highly anticipated royal wedding day got underway on Thursday with the surprise announcement that Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate had arrived to witness the nuptials of Crown Prince Hussein and his Saudi Arabian bride.The attendance of the British royals had been kept under wraps, and was only confirmed by Jordanian state media a few hours before the start of the palace ceremony.The wedding of Jordan’s 28-year-old heir to the throne and Rajwa Alseif, a 29-year-old architect linked to her own country’s monarch, emphasizes continuity in an Arab state prized for its longstanding stability. The festivities, which are to start Thursday afternoon, also introduce Hussein to a wider global audience.The celebration buttresses the royal family’s order of succession, refreshes its image after a palace feud and may even help resource-poor Jordan forge a strategic bond with its oil-rich neighbor, Saudi Arabia.On Thursday morn...

European summit opens in Moldova with Ukraine war, regional conflicts on agenda

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

BULBOACA, Moldova (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at a sprawling summit of some 50 European leaders in Moldova on Thursday, becoming the focal point of an event that seeks to quell regional conflicts and shore up unity in the face of Russia’s war. The meeting of the European Political Community, a pan-continental gathering of heads of state and government from 47 countries, brings together leaders from European Union nations and others to the 27-member bloc’s south and east — a region pushed to a turning point in its relationship with Moscow by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.The EU, represented at the summit by the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, wants to use the summit to reach out to many Eastern European countries that spent decades either within the Soviet Union or under its immediate sphere of influence, and to bolster the contin...

North Korean leader’s sister says US hypocritical for criticizing failed satellite launch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday accused the United States of “gangster-like” hypocrisy for criticizing her country’s failed launch of a military spy satellite and insisted a successful launch will be made soon.Kim Yo Jong said North Korea’s efforts to acquire space-based reconnaissance capabilities were a legitimate exercise of its sovereign right and restated the country’s rejection of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban it from conducting any launch involving ballistic missile technology.Her comments on state media came a day after the rocket carrying the satellite failed. North Korea said the rocket lost thrust after a stage separation and crashed in waters off the Korean Peninsula’s western coast.Washington, South Korea and Japan had quickly criticized the launch. Adam Hodge, a spokesperson at the U.S. National Security Council, said Washington strongly condemns the North Korean launch because it used banned bal...

US defense chief calls China’s refusal to meet unfortunate during visit to Tokyo for talks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stressed the importance of communication during a stopover with talks Thursday in Tokyo, calling it unfortunate that his Chinese counterpart refused to meet him at an annual security conference in Singapore, which both men are attending.On the way to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue Asian security summit this weekend, Austin held talks with Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada. Noting China’s increasingly assertive military actions in international airspace and waterways in the region, he told a joint news conference in Tokyo, “The provocative intercepts of our aircraft and also our allies’ aircraft, that’s very concerning, and we would hope that they would alter their action.” The United States military said Tuesday that a Chinese fighter jet flew aggressively close to a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, forcing the American pilot to fly through the turbulent wake.“I’m concerned about at some point having a...

New Zealand police file 5 murder charges against man accused of starting deadly hostel fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand police on Thursday filed five murder charges against the man they say lit a deadly fire at a Wellington hostel two weeks ago.Police had earlier filed arson charges against the 48-year-old man, accusing him of setting fire to a couch and to the hostel itself. He has remained in jail since his arrest two days after the fire.More than 100 people were staying at the four-story Loafers Lodge hostel when the fire tore through the building soon after midnight on May 16. Some people fled in their pajamas, while others were rescued by firefighters from the roof or jumped from windows. The fire caused parts of the roof and a floor to collapse in a pile of debris.Emergency officials said the building had no fire sprinklers, which are not required in many older buildings. New Zealand lawmakers say they are reviewing building regulations to see if they need changing. Among the five men who died in the fire was 67-year-old Mike Wahrlich, a street perform...