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Tampa Bay Rays finalizing new ballpark in St. Petersburg as part of larger urban project

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The playoff-bound Tampa Bay Rays are putting the finishing touches on plans for a new 30,000-seat ballpark in St. Petersburg as part of a huge $6 billion development project that includes affordable housing, retail, bars and restaurants and a Black history museum.The site is on the same 86-acre (34-hectare) tract of downtown land where Tropicana Field now sits. That domed, oddly-tilted ballpark will be demolished once the new one is built, in time for Opening Day 2028, said Brian Auld, co-president of the Rays, in an interview Monday.The plan, which still has some political hurdles on funding and approvals to clear, would keep the Rays in St. Petersburg for the foreseeable future despite constant talk of the team moving across the bay to Tampa, possibly to Nashville, Tennessee, and even a plan to split home games with Montreal that was shot down by Major League Baseball.“We’re going to be here for a very long time,” Auld said. “We’re all reall...

The UN chief summons world leaders to action. But, he says, they seem ‘incapable of coming together’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Insisting that international cooperation is critical, the United Nations chief delivered a dire warning to leaders from across the world Tuesday, declaring that the planet is becoming unhinged with mounting global challenges and geopolitical tensions — and warning that “we seem incapable of coming together to respond.”Addressing presidents and prime ministers, monarchs and ministers at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ticked off a list of “existential threats” the world is facing, from climate change to disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence.“Our world is becoming unhinged. Geopolitical tensions are rising. Global challenges are mounting. And we seem incapable of coming together to respond,” Guterres told the people who run the world’s nations. He said that the United Nations — and the ways that countries cooperate — must evolve to meet the era.“The world has changed. Our institution...

Judge rejects defense effort to throw out an Oath Keeper associate’s Jan. 6 guilty verdict

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday upheld an obstruction conviction against a Virginia man who stood trial with members of the Oath Keepers extremist group in one of the most serious cases brought in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a defense effort to throw out the Washington jury’s guilty verdict against Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer who was convicted last November in the U.S. Capitol attack alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Mehta said there was sufficient evidence to find Caldwell, of Berryville, Virginia, guilty of obstructing an official proceeding — in this case, Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over President Donald Trump — and tampering with documents or proceedings.The judge said that while Caldwell didn’t enter the Capitol, evidence supports the argument that he aided extremists who stormed the building. The judge pointed to Caldwell’s own...

Azerbaijan opens fire on Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh and 3 people are reported killed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Azerbaijan’s forces opened fire Tuesday on Armenian positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in what it called an “anti-terrorist operation,” and ethnic Armenian officials reported at least two civilians were killed and 23 wounded amid heavy artillery fire around the region’s capital. Azerbaijan’s authorities also accused Armenian forces of killing a civilian, which brought the civilian death toll of Tuesday’s hostilities to at least three. The Azerbaijani defense ministry announced the start of the operation hours after four soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The reports raised concerns that a full-scale war over the region could resume between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought heavily for six weeks in 2020. The ministry did not immediately give details, but said front-line positions and military assets of Armenia’s armed forces were being “incapacitated using high-precision...

Police say 12-year-old pointed replica gun at Oshawa homeowner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

Durham regional police have charged a 12-year-old boy after he allegedly pointed a pellet gun at a homeowner in Oshawa on Saturday. Police were called to the Mary Street North and Taunton Road area at around 5:25 p.m. after the boy allegedly showed up at a home and started kicking the front door. When the homeowner opened the door, police say the boy pulled a black pellet gun from his backpack and pointed it at the homeowner. He then fled the area. A Oshawa boy was later charged with pointing a firearm, assault with a weapon, possess weapon for committing offence, mischief under $5000 and failing to comply with an undertaking. He was held in custody for a bail hearing.

Stock market today: Wall Street slips ahead of Fed decision on rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping Tuesday as Wall Street waits for the Federal Reserve’s latest decision on interest rates.The S&P 500 was 0.5% lower in morning trading, a day after barely budging. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 181 points, or 0.5%, at 34,442, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.Stocks have been see-sawing for weeks on uncertainty about whether the Fed is done with its market-shaking hikes to interest rates. By pulling its main interest rate to the highest level in more than two decades, the Fed has helped inflation to cool from its peak last year but at the cost of hurting prices for investments and damaging some corners of the economy.The Fed is beginning its latest meeting on interest rates Tuesday, with an announcement scheduled for Wednesday. The overwhelming expectation is for the Fed to announce no change to rates. More focus will be on updated projections Fed officials give for where they see rates heading ...

House Republicans set first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing for Sept. 28

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans plan to hold their first hearing next week in their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family’s business dealings. The hearing — scheduled for Sept. 28 — is expected to focus on “constitutional and legal questions” that surround allegations of Biden’s involvement in his son Hunter’s overseas businesses, according to a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee. Republicans — led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — have contended in recent weeks that Biden’s actions from his time as vice president show a “culture of corruption.” The committee also plans to file subpoenas for the personal and business bank records of Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James Biden “as early as this week.” The White House has called the effort by House Republicans in the midst of the presidential campaign “extreme politics at its worst.”“House Republicans have been investigating the president for nine months, and they...

German higher regional court decides lower court can hear hear case against McCann suspect

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German higher regional court ruled Tuesday that a state court can hear a sex offenses case against a man who also is a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, overruling the state court’s earlier decision that it didn’t have jurisdiction. The higher regional court in the northern city of Braunschweig said that the state court had wrongly declared itself without jurisdiction when it said in April that it wasn’t responsible for hearing the case, arguing at the time that the region where it is located isn’t the last place where the suspect lived in Germany, news agency dpa reported.In October, prosecutors in Braunschweig charged the German suspect in his mid-40s in several separate cases involving sexual offenses allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.The suspect hasn’t been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the re...

Syria’s Assad to head to China as Beijing boosts its reach in the Middle East

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s President Bashar Assad will head to China later this week in his first visit to Beijing since the start of his country’s 12-year conflict during which China has been one of his main backers, his office said Tuesday.China has been expanding its reach in the Middle East after mediating a deal in March between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and it continues to support Assad in the Syrian conflict, which has killed half a million people and left large parts of the nation in ruins.China could play a major role in the future in Syria’s reconstruction, which is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars. Syria last year joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative in which Beijing expands its influence in developing regions through infrastructure projects.Assad’s office said the Syrian leader was invited by Chinese President Xi JInping for a summit and will head Thursday to Beijing along with a high-ranking Syrian delegation.Syria’s worsening economic crisis...

Israel shuts down main crossing with Gaza after outbreak of border violence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:20 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel has barred entry to thousands of Palestinian laborers from the Gaza Strip following an eruption of violent protests that have escalated tensions along the volatile frontier.The string of protests — disrupting weeks of calm at the separation fence — comes during a sensitive holiday season in Israel that began with the Jewish new year last week and continues through the Sukkot festival next week. During Sukkot, large numbers of Jews are expected to visit Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The compound, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is often a focal point for violence.Over the last week, dozens of Palestinians — burning tires and hurling explosive devices at Israeli soldiers — have streamed toward the fence separating Israel from Gaza, which has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent the ruling Hamas militant group...