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Why Ukraine’s spring offensive still hasn’t begun – with summer just weeks away

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, Western allies have shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons systems and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the supplies to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Now summer is just weeks away. While Russia and Ukraine are focused on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has yet to begin. Last week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it’s been delayed because his country lacks enough Western weapons to succeed without suffering too many casualties. Weather and training are playing a role too, officials and defense experts say. Officials insist the counteroffensive is coming. Preliminary moves by Ukraine to set the conditions it wants for an attack have already begun, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.A look at the factors delaying the counteroffensive and the preparations both sides are making in anticipation of it starting soon.WEATHERA ...

Nebraska expected to pass combo bill on abortion, gender-affirming care for minors

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Conservative Nebraska lawmakers are expected to have just enough votes to pass a bill Friday that combines a ban on gender-affirming care for minors with a 12-week abortion ban.The mood in the Nebraska Capitol since the hybrid measure was advanced Tuesday by a single vote has been volatile. Lawmakers have traded insults and promises of retribution on the legislative floor and protesters have loudly voiced their displeasure even in the days after vote.Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh has led an effort to filibuster nearly every bill this session — even ones she supports — to protest the ban on gender-affirming care for minors. She has railed against conservatives who voted for the hybrid bill and warned that people, medical professionals and businesses will leave the state over it.Cavanaugh declared in early March that she would “burn the session to the ground over this bill,” and she and a handful of progressive allies have followed through since. They have introdu...

Guardsman Jack Teixeira, Pentagon leak suspect, due back in court as judge weighs detention

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

A judge is poised to decide Friday whether a Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents will remain behind bars while he awaits trial. Jack Teixeira is due back in federal court in Worcester, Massachusetts, where a magistrate judge is expected to hear arguments on prosecutors’ request to keep the 21-year-old locked up before issuing his ruling. Teixeira, who faces charges under the Espionage Act, is accused of sharing secret military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other top national security issues in a chat room on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers.Prosecutors said in court papers filed this week that Teixeira was caught by superiors months before his April arrest taking notes on classified information or viewing intelligence not related to his job. He was twice admonished by superiors in September and October, and again observed in February viewing information “that was not ...

Push for transit, walkable communities growing across US

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — On the weekend in March when Brittany Glover would have turned 34, her mother stood on the same busy road in Atlanta where her daughter died six months earlier.Glover, a flight attendant with a passion for clothes, was coming from an entertainment venue during the early morning of Sept. 19, 2022. She had lived in Atlanta for only 48 hours when she was hit by a driver while crossing Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, which elected officials and activists call one of the most dangerous streets in the city. The driver fled and hasn’t been identified.“Brittany didn’t have to die,” her mother Valerie Handy-Carey said, surrounded by friends and supporters as speeding cars whizzed by. Atlanta, she said, needs to do more to protect pedestrians and cyclists.She’s far from alone in her call to action.With pedestrian deaths in the U.S. at their highest in four decades, citizens across the nation are urging lawmakers to break from transportation spending focused on c...

Most say pair debt limit increase with deficit cuts, but few following debate closely: AP-NORC poll

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — About two-thirds of U.S. adults say they are highly concerned about the impact on the national economy if the U.S. debt limit is not increased and the government defaults on its loans, according to a new poll, even as few say they have a solid understanding of the ongoing debt limit negotiations.The poll shows about 6 in 10 say they want any increase in the debt limit to be coupled with agreed-upon terms for reducing the federal budget deficit. At the same time, Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of how President Joe Biden and congressional negotiators on both sides of the aisle are handling negotiations. Still, slightly more approve of Biden’s handling of the situation than of congressional Republicans. The new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 27% say they approve of Biden and 26% say the same about congressional Democrats, while 22% approve of congressional Republicans. Close to half disapprove o...

Tom Skilling Reports: Temps in the 80s next week and a Review of the Meteorological Summer 2023 Outlook. More...

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

The NEXUS Climate Newsletter published the following piece Thursday, covering a North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) study is warning of potential electrical grid issues in parts of the country this summer if the weather's as hot as predicted.In summarizing the NERC study, however, the publication UTILITY NEWS makes the point, "Resources should be adequate to meet normal summer peak demand, but adds 'If summer temperatures spike and become more widespread, the U.S. West, Midwest, Texas and Southeast United States, New England and Ontario may experience resource shortfalls,' NERC concluded".HERE'S THE THURSDAY NEXUS REPORT ON THE GRID RELIABILITY STUDY:"The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is warning that much of the US is at risk for power outages if the summer is as hot as scientists are forecasting. This marks the agency’s most expansive warning yet as the coming heat could limit the western US from transferring electricity within the region, fur...

Kiszla: The King is dead! Long live the Joker! Nuggets turn narrative of Western Conference finals on its head.

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

The King is dead. Long live the Joker.On a spring night in Colorado when human triple-double machine Nikola Jokic was large and in charge, while a muffed dunk reminded LeBron James what a drag it can be to grow old, the young guns from Denver out-lasted the Slowtime Lakers,108-103, to take control of the Western Conference finals.And maybe, just maybe, the Nuggets changed the narrative. While James will forever be the king, there’s a new sheriff in the West.The Lakers are yesterday’s news. Can we stop all the yada, yada, yada about the team ESPN fawns over? Denver is sick and tired of being nothing more than a prop on the national stage.“Whatever we can use for motivation,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said late Thursday.“Our guys, to be honest, they might not admit this, but you win Game 1 …  and all everybody talked about was the Lakers. Let’s be honest. That was the national narrative: Hey, the Lakers are fine. They’re down 1-0, but...

The Global Security Initiative: China’s Proposal for Safeguarding World Peace and Security

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

Currently, changes unseen in a century are unfolding at a faster pace, and humanity is faced with a deficit of governance, trust, development and peace. In a world of change and disorder on the security front, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Security Initiative (GSI) in April 2022. The GSI, serving the common well-being of humanity, advocates a new path to security featuring dialogue over confrontation, partnership over the alliance and win-win over zero-sum. The GSI has provided China’s proposal for addressing the peace deficit and international security challenges.The GSI is underpinned by “six commitments”, namely, staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; staying committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; staying committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; staying committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously; sta...

Lebanon: After Harfouch's success against corruption the defamatory campaign against him continues

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

Omar Harfouch, the founder of the "Third Republic of Lebanon", is the subject of a harsh campaign of defamation and spreading false news against him through media platforms financed by corrupt officials in Lebanon, after having succeeded in bringing the case of the governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, to its terms, and the issuance of an indictment and an international arrest warrant by the French Financial Prosecutor's Office against the governor.Not to mention a plot organized against him by PM Najib Mikati - who is prosecuted for money laundering organized in Lebanon by the prosecutor's office of the Principality of Monaco - which aimed to liquidate him physically in an indirect way.For its part, the European Union is preparing a report on the inhuman persecution taking place in Lebanon against those who fight corruption, including Omar Harfouch, and is preparing a conference in Brussels on this subject next September.And before that, Omar Harfouch will tour European pa...

Police drone video captures foot chase with suspect in Seal Beach

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:02:10 GMT

Infrared video from a police drone captured a foot chase between police and a suspected thief Wednesday morning in Seal Beach.  The incident happened at around 1 a.m. when officers with the Seal Beach Police Department were called about a man checking the handles of car doors. Authorities said with the help of the drone, they were able to find the man hiding on the beach. When he attempted to flee on foot, the drone tracked him and led officers to his location. Authorities in Seal Beach say that between the two drones the department has, they’ve used them more than 50 times in the last year in different kinds of cases.  As for the suspect who was checking the handles of car doors in the area, he was ultimately arrested for a probation violation.