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Lithuania defies China over Taiwan ties in new Asia strategy

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

The European Union’s biggest China hawk isn’t backing down.As Lithuania prepares to host the NATO leaders’ summit in less than a week, a new government strategy on the Indo-Pacific region published on Wednesday reinforces the Baltic country’s decision to build strong economic ties with Taiwan, in defiance of intense pressure from China to change course.The new document — which calls Taiwan’s trade ties one of its “strategic priorities” — comes as Brussels and Beijing enter a new phase of tension over trade. The Netherlands recently decided to block exports of advanced semiconductor machines to China, prompting Beijing to roll out export controls on critical minerals.Going further than the EU’s mildly critical language, Lithuania’s strategy describes China as a “global economic and military power that has consolidated ever-intensifying autocratic control methods domestically and is exercising an increasingly aggressive forei...

Solve It 7: Travel Trouble

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

A Douglas woman was owed more than $700 from a credit card company, but couldn’t get her money back, until Solve It 7 got involved. Now she’s giving us the credit. Brandon Gunnoe has the story.Elizabeth moved to a home in the country.So she and her husband could make their dream of having chickens, dogs, and a horse come true.“I do live out here because of all my animals. My little menagerie,” Elizabeth said.And recently, Elizabeth got a job where she could work from her dream home.Wanting to spend extra time with her animals Elizabeth got a new work-from-home job.“I love it. Even though I’m stationed from home, I will be doing a lot of traveling,” Elizabeth said.So she got a credit card with travel perks.“You got points towards hotel discounts and the flights,” Elizabeth said.She tried using the card’s app to book a flight.“I hit submit, I got an error, and the error specifi...

Chicago White Sox’s Luis Robert Jr. adds the Home Run Derby to his All-Star activities — joining 2 of his Cuban countrymen

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. spoke to Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena and Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis García.Arozarena and García, both from Cuba, had signed up for the Home Run Derby. And they wanted their countryman Robert to join.“We all said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Robert said through an interpreter Wednesday.Major League Baseball announced Robert’s participation in Monday’s event at T-Mobile Park in Seattle — a day before Robert’s first All-Star Game.“It’s a good experience,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said before Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays. “I remember (Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez) doing it and he was pretty pumped about it and he had a really good time.”Robert, who is second in the American League with 25 home runs, is the top seed in the eight-player bracket. He’ll face Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman i...

As Julian Phillips prepares for his 1st NBA Summer League, Chicago Bulls coaches believe the rookie’s defense could be a ‘superpower’

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

Chicago Bulls second-round draft pick Julian Phillips set a simple goal for his debut at the NBA Summer League this week in Las Vegas.“Winning,” Phillips said. “Win every game. Win as many games as we can.”The Tennessee product will play his first minutes in a Bulls jersey when the team begins summer league action Friday against the Toronto Raptors.After Phillips’ first week in Chicago, summer league head coach John Bryant said the coaching staff was impressed with the rookie’s attitude toward earning a place on the roster.“He’s grown in four days and kind of come out of his shell, and it’s been fun to watch,” Bryant said. “I knew he was an athlete. He can run up and down the floor, he’s a good slasher, good driver. But it’s fun to see his personality come out.”Before trading into the draft to select Phillips at No. 35, one strength stood out to the Bulls front office: defense.Executive vice presiden...

Man killed by falling tree in East County

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

EL CAJON, Calif. -- A man was killed Wednesday while cutting down a large tree on his property in the El Cajon area, authorities said.The incident occurred around 11:10 a.m. in the 1900 block of Altozano Drive, Andy McKellar with Heartland Fire and Rescue said in a news release.When firefighters arrived at the location, they found the tree had fallen onto the victim, according to fire officials. First responders attempted to render aid on the man, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Body found in Mission Beach It took crews several hours to "carefully" and "respectfully" remove the man from underneath the tree, McKellar said. The San Diego County Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy on the body. His name has not been released at this time.

Employers call for binding arbitration after fifth day of B.C. port strike

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

VANCOUVER — Maritime employers in British Columbia are proposing binding arbitration to end the province’s port strike, after talks with the workers’ union deadlocked.The BC Maritime Employers Association said in a statement on Wednesday that billions of dollars worth of cargo remain in limbo, disrupting critical supply chains and damaging relationships with international trading partners.It said on the fifth day of the port strike that if the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada agreed to binding arbitration “port operations could resume quickly, critical goods could begin to flow again and there would be immediate stability and restoration to Canada’s supply chain operations.”The association said it first proposed mediated arbitration almost three weeks ago, a process it said would be shaped by both sides and only produce a binding outcome if necessary.Talks between the employers association and the union stalled on Monday. More than 7,000 wor...

Nevada secures $285M opioid settlement with Walgreens, bringing total settlements to $1 billion

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The state of Nevada has reached a $285 million settlement with Walgreens regarding the pharmacy chain’s role in the opioid epidemic, the state’s top lawyer announced Wednesday.The last in a series of multiyear settlements with pharmaceutical companies, retailers and others, it pushes Nevada’s total anticipated payments stemming from opioid claims to $1.1 billion, state Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office said in a news release. Nevada is among numerous states that have reached settlements now totaling more than $50 billion nationwide. “When I first took office as attorney general, I made it clear that seeking justice for those harmed by the opioid epidemic was one of my top priorities,” Ford said.Walgreens had no comment on the settlement, a company spokesman said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.Walgreens is the final defendant named in a lawsuit the state filed in 2019, Ford’s office said.The $285 million settlement w...

Ohio abortion rights backers submit nearly double needed signatures for fall ballot measure

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Groups hoping to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s constitution delivered nearly double the number of signatures needed to place an amendment on the statewide ballot this fall, aiming to signal sweeping widespread support for an issue that still faces the threat of needing a significantly increased victory margin.Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said they dropped off more than 700,000 petition signatures on Wednesday to Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office in downtown Columbus. LaRose now will work with local election boards to determine that at least 413,446 signatures are valid, which would get the proposal onto the Nov. 7 ballot.“Today, we take a huge step forward in the fight for abortion access and reproductive freedom for all, to ensure that Ohioans and their families can make their own health care decisions without government interference,” Lauren Blauvelt and Kellie Copeland of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a c...

Germany’s top court blocks a parliament vote on a contentious bill to replace heat sources in homes

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s highest court on Wednesday blocked government plans to hold a vote in parliament this week on a contentious plan to encourage home owners to replace fossil fuel heating systems with cleaner alternatives.The Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling denies Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition the chance to move on quickly from a dispute over a key climate policy plan that has dragged it down in polls in recent months.The government had hoped to get the legislation through parliament on Friday, the last day before its summer recess. But the court issued an injunction blocking parliament from considering it this week, ruling in favor of a lawmaker from the main conservative opposition bloc who argued that his rights as a lawmaker would be violated by it being pushed through without an opportunity for more detailed consideration.The two junior partners in the center-left Scholz’s coalition, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-bus...

A bus careens into a gulch in southern Mexico, killing 29 people

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:34:04 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A passenger bus lost control and veered off a road and into a 75-foot-deep (25 meter-deep) gully in southern Mexico early Wednesday, killing at least 29 passengers, officials said. The crash occurred in the largely indigenous Mixteca region of the southern state of Oaxaca. The state’s interior secretary, Jesús Romero, said 27 people had died in the crash, including a 1 1/2-year-old toddler. He said that about 20 people were injured in the accident, some very seriously.His office later said the death toll had increased to 29, after two victims died from their injures at a hospital. Romero said the bus driver apparently lost control of the vehicle and plunged into the gully. “It appears that a lack of skill and tiredness caused the accident,” Romero said in remarks to a local television station.Photos distributed by police suggesting the bus had flipped over, totally crushing the passenger compartment.The bus set out from Mexico City to carry passengers to a n...