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Migrating Venezuelans undeterred by US plan to resume deportation flights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

LAJAS BLANCAS, Panama (AP) — At the edge of Panama’s Darien jungle Friday, Venezuelans made up the majority of migrants waiting for buses to speed them across the country to Costa Rica, where they planned to continue moving north.Annie Carrillo, a 38-year-old Venezuelan migrant traveling with her Colombian husband and another friend, said they had crossed the dense, lawless jungle from Colombia in three days after paying $350 each to a guide. When she heard about the U.S. government’s plan to restart deportation flights to Venezuela in the coming days, Carrillo said it was discouraging.“No one emigrates from their country because they want to. One migrates because you have basic needs and there isn’t support in your native country,” she said, starting to cry. The U.S. government hopes the threat of deportation will be enough to make Venezuelans reconsider trying to enter the United States illegally and opt instead for the online appointment system to make asylum claims or other lega...

NY appeals court declines to halt Trump’s civil fraud trial while he contests a pretrial ruling

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals judge declined Friday to halt Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, rebuffing the former president’s request to postpone it while he fights a pretrial ruling that could strip him of control of such assets as Trump Tower.The appellate judge agreed that control over the holdings will stay as-is for now. Friday’s decision came five days into the closely watched trial, which drew Trump to the courthouse to observe — and fulminate — for days this week. Trump’s lawyers had asked the state’s intermediate appellate court to suspend the trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit and prevent Judge Arthur Engoron from enforcing his ruling of last week, which revokes the Republican frontrunner’s business licenses and puts a court-appointed receiver in charge of his companies.“This is a massive error. It is irreparable,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise told an appeals judge Friday afternoon. Kise argued that the ruling will make def...

Sam Bankman-Fried stole customer funds from the beginning of FTX, exchange’s co-founder tells jury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried authorized the illegal use of FTX customers’ funds and assets to plug financial gaps at an affiliated hedge fund from the exchange’s earliest days, FTX’s co-founder Gary Wang told a New York jury on Friday, as prosecutors pressed their case that Bankman-Fried was the mastermind behind one of the biggest frauds in U.S. history. Eventually, the losses at the hedge fund, Alameda Research, became so large that there was no way to hide them any longer, Wang said in his second day of testimony. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried, 31, stole billions of dollars from investors and customers in order to fund a lavish lifestyle in The Bahamas and buy the influence of politicians, celebrities and the public. Wang was FTX’s chief technology officer and is part of what has been referred to as the “inner circle” of FTX executives who have agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried in exchange for leniency in their own criminal cases. Wang h...

Caretaker of Dominican cemetery where bodies of six newborns were found turns himself in

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A cemetery caretaker who was wanted for questioning about the bodies of six newborn babies found discarded near the cemetery in the Dominican Republic’s capital turned himself into authorities Friday, police said.The man, identified as Hilario Pascual, spoke in a video statement posted online before he turned himself in alleging that the bodies had been dropped off at the cemetery after hours and that he had already started drinking and forgot about them. The incident shocked and perplexed many in the Caribbean country. The bodies were found just outside the cemetery in Santo Domingo early Wednesday and prompted police to launch an investigation.A spokeswoman for Juan Bosch City Hospital, located nearby, said the institution had transferred the bodies of six newborns Tuesday to funeral home El Popular for proper burial. The owner of the funeral home, identified as Julián Encarnacion Montero, told Noticias SIN that the bodies were taken ...

Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

David Willard has been checking the grounds of Chicago’s lakefront exhibition center for dead birds for 40 years. On Thursday morning he found something horrible: Hundreds of dead songbirds, so thick they looked like a carpet.Nearly 1,000 songbirds perished during the night after crashing into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center ‘s windows, the result, according to avian experts, of a deadly confluence of prime migration conditions, rain and the low-slung exhibition hall’s lights and window-lined walls.“It was just like a carpet of dead birds at the windows there,” said Willard, a retired bird division collections manager at the Chicago Field Museum, where his duties included administering, preserving and cataloging the museum’s collection of 500,000 bird specimens as well as searching for bird strikes as part of migration research. “A normal night would be zero to 15 (dead) birds. It was just kind of a shocking outlier to what we’ve experienced,”...

A UN rights commission accuses South Sudan of violations more than a year before the next election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan accused the country’s National Security Service of threatening media and civil society and undermining prospects for a democratic transition.A new report — based on the U.N. commission’s independent investigations in 2023 — was released on Thursday and gave details about attacks on journalists and members of civil society, both within and outside the country.Journalists have been subjected to surveillance, intimidation and human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, according to the U.N. report.“Independent media and a vibrant civil society represent critical voices in developing accountable governance, and the democratic processes required to enable peace and ensure human rights,” said Yasmin Sooka, the chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.South Sudan is going through a political transition period after a civil war that wracked the country from 2013 until 2018, when a peac...

Liberals’ bail-reform bill sparks concerns about need for more legal aid funding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

OTTAWA — Many in Canada’s legal community are expressing concern about how the overloaded court systemand those needing legal aid could be affected a Liberal bill that proposes to make bail harder to access. Senators on a committee probing Bill C-48 will enter the final phase of their study later this month by going over the legislation clause by clause and suggesting amendments.Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani has encouraged the Senate to pass the bill quickly, saying the fact that all provincial and territorial governments pushed for the measures underlines their urgency.Police leaders also support the bill, saying these are much-needed reforms after a spate of high-profile killings by repeat violent offenders, who in some cases had been released on bail. But civil society groups and legal advocates representing people who are Black, Indigenous or otherwise marginalized say its measures could worsen the overrepresentation of such groups behind bars — something Liberals h...

Man accused of restraining Walgreens pharmacist, techs during Northwest Side robbery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

CHICAGO — A man was arrested along with a teen Sunday after unlawfully restraining a Walgreens pharmacist and pharmacy technicians during a violent robbery on the Northwest Side, court documents allege.Officers responded to the store, located in the 4300 block of North Central Avenue, at around 6:45 p.m. on the report of a robbery in progress.Court documents state Tyler Johnson, 18, entered the store that evening with a 17-year-old boy. They headed to the pharmacy in the back corner of the Walgreens. Johnson then allegedly grabbed a pharmacy technician's neck and threatened to kill the employee while indicating he had a weapon, according to documents.During the incident, a 27-year-old female pharmacist, and three technicians, 19, 20 and an unknown age, were restrained.Prosecutors allege Johnson stole money and 58 bottles of medication while threatening to "kill multiple victims."The pair were taken into custody by Chicago police at the scene.Johnson was charged with aggravated robbe...

'It’s time to leave': 30 years since Michael Jordan's stunning first retirement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

CHICAGO — One of the most stunning moments in the history of Chicago sports happened 30 years ago on Friday.But the drama and eventual announcement by Michael Jordan was actually something that unfolded over the course of 15 hours and included at Major League Baseball playoff game in the city. (AP Photo/Mike Elias)On October 6, 1993, in front of a sea of cameras and reporters at the Berto Center in Deerfield, Jordan announced his retirement from the game of basketball after nine seasons.He was 3 1/2 months removed from winning his third NBA Championship and third NBA Finals MVP with the Bulls, playing the best basketball of any player in the world. That's why Jordan's decision stunned fans in Chicago, the United States, and around the globe as arguably the most recognizable athlete in the world was hanging it up.“I have always stressed that when I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time to leave,” said Jordan of his announceme...

McDonald's 'Boo Buckets' are back, and with a new color

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:50 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — McDonald's famous Boo Buckets are making a return just in time for Halloween.The fast food giant confirmed Friday that the buckets are back this year for a limited time.(McDonald's)The buckets temporarily replace the company's cardboard Happy Meal container, bringing customers some Halloween nostalgia.McDonald's first debuted the Boo Buckets in 1986. The limited-time buckets were a staple during the season before they vanished from 2016 to 2022. This year, a purple bucket joins the lineup for the first time since they were launched. The designs are called Monster, Skeleton, Mummy and Vampire. Dunkin’ unveils 6-foot inflatable spider donut The buckets aren't just to hold your meal, but they can be reused as candy buckets or Halloween decorations.Customers can get their hands on a Boo Bucket by ordering a Happy Meal through the app or at the store beginning Oct. 17 through Halloween or while supplies last.