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Kosovo PM open to redoing elections after violent protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti is open to organizing new municipal elections in northern Kosovo, a spokesperson said, after violent protests caused tensions to spike between Kosovo and Serbia.Kurti made the suggestion as officials in Europe and the U.S. mount pressure on Kosovo to re-run the contests, which ethnic Albanians won after the Kosovo Serb population boycotted the polls.Late Thursday, Kurti tweeted that Serbia must help reduce tensions in order to secure new elections, calling for “an immediate end to violence by Belgrade-sponsored mobs against security officers until new elections in those municipalities.”The remark, a government spokesperson told POLITICO, was meant to show “an openness to new elections.”Kosovo — which declared its independence in 2008 but is not recognized by Belgrade — and Serbia have long been at odds over the rights of ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo. Those tensions have resurfaced in recent days after Pristina ...

Time to ban TikTok, EU lawmakers tell governments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

The European Parliament is calling on the bloc’s national governments to ban the use of TikTok for government staff.Members of the Parliament on Thursday passed a report aimed at stopping foreign governments from meddling in the Continent’s politics through disinformation, cyberattacks, and the disruption of critical infrastructure.As part of its recommendations, lawmakers urged all national governments to fall in line with restrictions the European Union, a number of capitals and Western countries outside of Europe already imposed on the use of Chinese-owned social media application TikTok. The video-sharing app loved by teenagers around the world is facing allegations from Western security services of facilitating espionage, failing to protect personal data, and even corrupting young minds. The report is part of work in the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including D...

Column: Will it be a June swoon or June gloom for White Sox and Cubs?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

June traditionally has been associated with swooning in baseball.But since both Chicago baseball teams pre-swooned in April and May, the main task for the Cubs and White Sox over the next 30 days will be avoiding the dreaded June gloom — total apathy from their respective fan bases.In a city like Chicago that treats every summer day like a party, it’s relatively easy to ignore bad baseball while waiting on the return of the Bears. There are many other entertainment options, along with my preferred summer pastime of doing nothing.We already can see it happening on the South Side.The Sox enter the weekend series against the Detroit Tigers ranked 23rd in average attendance at 18,610, a 25% drop-off from last year’s 24,704. Only opening day and a few popular giveaways at Guaranteed Rate Field have prevented an even larger decrease.It partly can be traced to a lack of season ticket renewals after the 2022 debacle and failure by management to address some offseason needs...

Why under-the-radar, over-the-top Kyle Hendricks ranks among the elite pitchers in Chicago Cubs history

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

Two pitchers wear Chicago Cubs logos on the caps of their Hall of Fame plaques. Two more Hall of Famers spent more of their careers with the Cubs than other teams.One Cubs pitcher has a statue at Wrigley Field.Five won Cy Young awards. More than 30 were All-Stars as Cubs.But one who can’t be found on any of those lists has accomplished things none of those others have, the things that might put Kyle Hendricks on a list of Cubs pitchers so elite for their significance in franchise history that they can be counted on one hand — at least one not belonging to “Three Finger” Brown.“He’s in the top 10 — oh, for sure,” said Fergie Jenkins, the greatest pitcher in franchise history, who is alone as a member of all those lists above.That’s what makes Hendricks’ nearly yearlong comeback from a capsular tear in his throwing shoulder especially intriguing and worth watching over these next four months, not only for what it might mean f...

Chicago Bears Q&A: Has the time come to add an edge rusher? What young players are standing out at OTAs?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

The Chicago Bears are finishing their second week of organized team activities at Halas Hall. Despite their offseason additions, they still have some roster deficiencies. Brad Biggs addresses concerns in his weekly mailbag.It’s June 1. Do you think the Bears will be active this week or next for edge help? — @just_acyJust because the Bears have not added a defensive end with a track record does not mean general manager Ryan Poles and his staff have not been working on this initiative. I expect the team to add a veteran edge defender at some point.“We’re interested in a lot of free agents,” coach Matt Eberflus said Wednesday when asked if he would like to get some help at the position. “We’re interested in a lot of guys at all positions. We’re just excited about being able to look at those guys and potentially add as we go through camp and getting closer to the season.”Does this mean something will happen this week or next? Maybe. ...

Spanish Catholic bishops find evidence of 728 sexual abusers, 927 victims since 1945

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Catholic bishops’ conference says it has found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945, through the testimony of 927 victims, in its first public report on the issue.The church said 83% of the victims and 99% of the abusers were male and that more than 60% of the offenders were dead. In a report presented Thursday, more than 50% of offenders were said to be priests. The rest were other church officials.The church said that most cases occurred in the last century, 75% of them before 1990.The conference said the collection of testimonies was continuing and the figure would be updated periodically. The data was collected in some 200 offices for the protection of minors, set up by the church around Spain in 2019.Leading daily El País, which has been reporting constantly on cases in Spain and abroad, said Friday the real figures of abuses within the church were likely to be much higher, as the church report only referred to cases recorded since 2...

Light rain arrives in Nova Scotia as two major wildfires burn out of control

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

HALIFAX — Scattered showers are moving across parts of Nova Scotia this morning, providing some relief to a province still struggling with its worst wildfire season on record.The forecast is calling for steady rain tonight and into Saturday, but two major wildfires continue to burn out of control — one northwest of downtown Halifax and another larger fire in the southwestern corner of the province.As of today, more that 21,000 people have been forced to leave their homes by evacuation orders — 16,000 in suburban Halifax and 6,700 in Shelburne County, which is about half of the municipality’s population.By Thursday night, 50 per cent of the Halifax-area fire had been contained, but the Barrington Lake fire continued to grow, reaching 200 square kilometres — the largest recorded wildfire in the province’s history.About 200 structures, including 151 homes, have been destroyed in the Halifax area, and another 50 homes and cottages have been consumed by the Barrington Lake fi...

From Jordan, Jill Biden arrives in Cairo as part of Mideast tour aiming to empower women, youth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Jill Biden arrived in Cairo on Friday, on the second leg of her six-day trip across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe that seeks to empower women and promote education for young people.The first lady arrived in the Egyptian capital from Amman, Jordan, where she attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Saudi architect Rajwa Alsei f on Thursday. She is traveling to Morocco on Saturday before heading to Portugal, the final stop of her tour, on Monday. The nuptials in Jordan drew a star-studded list — headlined by Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate — but also held deep significance for the region, emphasizing continuity in an Arab state prized for its longstanding stability. Egypt is one of the largest recipients in the Mideast of American economic and military aid and a longstanding U.S. ally. However, in recent years, U.S. lawmakers have sought to condition that aid on human rights improvements and reforms.Biden was greeted on the tarmac by Entissar...

UN warns of aid shortage, looming food crisis in wake of devastating cyclone that hit Myanmar

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations warned Friday that far too little aid is reaching cyclone-hit areas of Myanmar and the country could face a major food crisis soon if farmers are unable to plant crops.Cyclone Mocha struck the western state of Rakhine and nearby regions last month, killing hundreds of people and damaging thousands of dwellings. “The devastation is truly immense,” said Titon Mitra, a U.N. representative in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. Strong winds “twisted telecom towers, snapped concrete poles in half and uprooted even 100-year-old trees,” he said.An estimated 700,000 homes have been damaged and rains, combined with storm surges, have wreaked havoc on the agricultural and fisheries sector, according to the U.N. Among those hardest hit are members of the Rohingya minority who have been living in crowded displacement camps since losing their homes in a brutal 2017 counterinsurgency campaign led by Myanmar security forces. Adding to this the U.N. is concerned a...

Young Kabuki actor’s debut breaks Japanese theater traditions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:52 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Ten-year-old Maholo Terajima Ghnassia loves watching anime and playing baseball. He likes making beats and whisper ASMR. And he’s breaking conventions in Japan’s 420-year-old Kabuki theater tradition.In Kabuki, all the roles are played by men, including beautiful princesses — a role Maholo accomplishes stunningly in his official stage debut as Maholo Onoe at the Kabuki Theater in downtown Tokyo. In the performance, which ran May 2 through 27 to full audiences, he starts out disguised as a woman, dancing gracefully, before transforming into sword-wielding warrior Iwami Jutaro. He then makes a quick costume change right there on the stage, all while delivering singsong lines in a clear resonating voice unaided by a microphone. Out to avenge his father’s death, striking spectacular poses, Maholo performs swashbuckling fight scenes and slays a furry baboon. “I like ‘tachimawari’ (fight scenes). It feels good, and people who are watching it think it’s cool,” said...