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For Putin, winning reelection could be easier than resolving the many challenges facing Russia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

For President Vladimir Putin, winning reelection will probably be the easy part. His sweeping grip on Russia’s political scene has virtually assured him another six-year term that would extend his two dozen years in power. More daunting will be the thorny challenges that lie ahead.The stalemated war in Ukraine, unyielding Western pressure that compounds Russia’s economic problems, and intensifying infighting among the ruling elite will loom over Putin’s next term and erode his pledges of stability.THE WAR IN UKRAINEWhat Putin expected to be a quick campaign in 2022 to establish Kremlin control over its neighbor has turned into a grinding war of attrition that has incurred massive personnel losses and drained Russia’s resources.While Russia has prevented Ukraine’s army from making any significant gains during its summer counteroffensive, the Kremlin doesn’t have enough manpower and equipment to mount any major campaigns of its own.The resulting stalemate sets the stage fo...

Smugglers are bringing migrants to a remote Arizona border crossing, overwhelming US agents

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. (AP) — Gerston Miranda and his wife were among thousands of migrants recently arriving at this remote area on Arizona’s southern border with Mexico, squeezing into the United States through a gap in the wall and walking overnight about 14 miles (23 kilometers) with two school-aged daughters to surrender to Border Patrol agents.“There is no security in my country,” said the 28-year-old from Ecuador, who lost work when his employer closed due to extortion by criminals. “Without security you cannot work. You cannot live.” A shift in smuggling routes has brought an influx of migrants here from countries as diverse as Senegal, Bangladesh and China, prompting the Border Patrol to seek help from other federal agencies and drawing scrutiny to an issue critical in next year’s presidential elections.With hundreds of migrants crossing daily in the area, the U.S. government on Monday indefinitely shut down the nearby international crossing between Lukeville, A...

Death of last surviving Alaskan taken by Japan during WWII rekindles memories of forgotten battle

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gregory Golodoff spent most of his years on a quiet Alaska island, living an ordinary life, managing a co-op store, fishing for crab and serving as the village council president. But Golodoff’s recent death at the age of 84 has reopened a chapter of American history and stirred up memories of a long-forgotten Japanese invasion that prompted the only World War II battle on North American soil.Golodoff was the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured remote Attu Island during World War II. He was 3 when the island was taken. He died Nov. 17 in Anchorage, his family said. His sister, Elizabeth “Liz” Golodoff Kudrin, the second-to-last surviving Attuan, died in February at 82. Three of their siblings died in captivity.“The eldest generation has passed away to the other side,” said Helena Schmitz, the great-granddaughter of the last Attu chief, who died in Japan along with his son.Attu is a desolate, mountainous slab of ...

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is marking its 75th anniversary?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

Seventy-five years ago on Sunday, the U.N. General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a meeting in Paris — laying one of the foundation stones of the international order that emerged following the horrors of World War II.The declaration was proclaimed as “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.” In practice, it hasn’t always turned out that way over the subsequent decades. As the document turns 75, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said this week that the world is at a “somber moment in history,” wracked by conflicts and crises. But he insisted that “human rights have not failed.”WHAT IS THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION?A relatively compact document, the declaration consists of a preamble and 30 articles setting out fundamental rights and freedoms. Article 1 states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” And Article 2 says that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms the dec...

Oklahoma City voters consider 1% sales tax to build a $1 billion arena for NBA’s Thunder

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — When a group of Oklahoma City investors moved the NBA’s SuperSonics from Seattle in 2008 and renamed the franchise the Thunder, civic pride swelled at the arrival of the state’s first major league sports franchise.Since then, the Oklahoma City Thunder have played their home games in what is now a modest arena by NBA standards. But the team owners want a new arena, and under a deal they cut with city leaders, they want taxpayers to foot most of the $900 million price tag.Oklahoma City voters are set to decide Tuesday whether to approve a six-year, 1% sales tax to help fund construction or risk the same fate as Seattle: losing the team to another market. But some residents and experts who have studied public-private partnerships say the deal is much better for the wealthy team owners than the average resident.Under the plan before voters, the new arena would cost at least $900 million, with Thunder owners chipping in 5%, or $50 million. The team also would agree t...

The inauguration of Javier Milei has Argentina wondering what kind of president it will get

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — As economist Javier Milei assumes Argentina’s presidency on Sunday, the nation wonders which version of him will govern: the chainsaw-wielding, anti-establishment crusader from the campaign trail, or the more moderate president-elect who emerged in recent weeks.Milei, 53, rose to fame on television with profanity-laden tirades against what he called the political caste. He parlayed his popularity into a congressional seat and then, just as swiftly, into a presidential run. The overwhelming victory of the self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” in the August primaries sent shock waves through the political landscape and upended the race. Argentines disillusioned with the economic status quo — triple-digit inflation, four in 10 people in poverty, a plunging currency — proved receptive to an outsider’s outlandish ideas to remedy their woes and transform the nation. He won the election’s Nov. 19 second round decisively — and sent packing the P...

China is hardening against dissent, rights groups say as they mark International Human Rights Day

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

LONDON (AP) — When her husband fled China in 2019 to escape a police crackdown on dissidents, Lu Lina thought she and their young son could soon join him in safety abroad. She did not know that she would be forced to move house, that her 8-year-old son would be effectively kicked out of school and that border police would block her from leaving the country over the next three years. In the end, the couple had to resort to filing for divorce in China to get around the exit ban. “After my husband left, police gave our lives so much trouble,” Lu said from Los Angeles, where the family eventually reunited and settled late last year. “Every time the border guards would stop me, take away my phone, my wallet and all my things. They gave no explanation.”Lu’s husband, Liu Sifang, a musician and former teacher, was among a number of Chinese activists and rights lawyers who were either arrested, forced into hiding or self-exiled after attending an informal get-together in 2019 to discuss huma...

Military-themed brewery wants to open in a big Navy town. An ex-SEAL is getting in the way

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A former U.S. Navy SEAL who says he shot Osama bin Laden is at the center of a much different fight in Virginia, where plans for a military-themed brewery are drawing opposition over his alleged racist and homophobic remarks.Robert J. O’Neill has a small ownership stake in Armed Forces Brewing Company and has served as its brand ambassador. His recent social media complaint about a Navy sailor who performs as a drag queen and a police report alleging he used a racial slur are fueling efforts to stop the brewery from opening in military-friendly Norfolk. The company, which markets itself with politically conservative ads, has dismissed claims of bigotry and toned down O’Neill’s public-facing role. But last month, Norfolk’s planning commission recommended the City Council deny permits for the planned taproom and distribution center, which would be only a few miles (kilometers) from the nation’s largest Navy base. The nonbinding 4-to-2 vote came af...

Cows in Rotterdam harbor, seedlings on rafts in India; are floating farms the future?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — On the top deck of a three-tiered structure moored near downtown Rotterdam, brown and white cows graze on hay dropped from a conveyor belt above their heads and rinds of oranges salvaged from supermarket juice machines in the port city. Canopies overhead protect the cows from sun and collect rainwater they will eventually drink.Sometimes the Maas-Rijn-Ijssel cows — named for three Dutch rivers — walk over to a machine that automatically milks them, or they shuffle out of the way of a robot trundling past to mop up manure that will be turned into organic fertilizer.“We call our cows upcycle ladies,” says Minke van Wingerden of the Floating Farm, which sells the milk, cheese and buttermilk produced by the cows in a small shop on dry land next to its harbor berth.The Floating Farm, which has been operational since 2019 and bills itself as the world’s first such farm, isn’t on entirely new terrain. Efforts to put agriculture on or in the water a...

Texas takes out Stanford 3-1 to clinch spot in NCAA volleyball semifinals

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:20:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — There's only one team that isn't a No. 1 seed in its region headed to the NCAA volleyball national semifinals, and that's the defending national champion Texas Longhorns.The second-seeded Longhorns avenged an early-season loss to top-seeded Stanford 3-1 in the regional final Saturday at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, California. Texas will play Wisconsin on Thursday in Tampa, Florida. It's the 15th time in school history that Texas has made it to the national semifinals.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersSet scores were 25-16, 15-25, 25-19 and 25-22.Madisen Skinner put the Longhorns on her back in the deciding set, hammering eight of her match-high 24 kills in the frame with a service ace to lift them to victory. Asjia O'Neal had 10 kills with five blocks while Bella Bergmark and Molly Phillips combined for 12 blocks.Texas was much more efficient in its att...