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At least $2.1 billion in new funds pledged at COP28, as foundations focus on health and agriculture

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

With the United Nations climate talks wrapping up in Dubai, foundations and other funders pledged at least $2.1 billion in new financing to reduce climate impacts, especially from agriculture, and increasing help for vulnerable communities.The Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, or COP28 summit, featured numerous firsts, including forums on health, food production and philanthropy. The estimated pledges, which do not represent a complete account of philanthropic commitments at COP28, came from a mix of foundations and private companies with some made in partnership with governments. They will be delivered over a range of timelines. For the first time, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria sent a delegation to the conference, pledging to spend 70% of its budget, about $9 billion, in the 50 most climate vulnerable countries over the next three years. “The honest answer is that the global health community, including us, was so focused on COVID-19, that we proba...

Court overturns conviction of former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif ahead of parliamentary election

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani court overturned Tuesday the 2018 conviction of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a graft case, clearing his path to run in the parliamentary election set to be held in February.The Islamabad High Court announced its verdict after Sharif filed his appeal in October. Courts in Pakistan usually take much longer to issue such rulings. The same court acquitted Sharif in another graft case on Nov. 29.Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party welcomed the verdict, saying the country’s three-time former premier was exonerated and could run in the coming election.Marriyum Aurangzeb, Sharif’s spokesperson, hailed the court ruling, saying: “Today, the reality of these fake and false cases has come to light in front of the public.”In 2018, an anti-graft tribunal sentenced Sharif to seven years and 10 years in prison in two cases filed against him, after he stepped down as prime minister. He returned to Pakistan in October, after four years o...

How to tell fact from fiction in reports from Gaza

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, if you’ve been fooled by a viral photo or video out of Gaza in the past two months, you’re far from alone. In fact you’re in the company of journalists and media outlets as well, that’s how rife with misinformation and disinformation this conflict has become. And because the debunking of the information didn’t travel nearly as far and wide as the initial report, you may not even know you were fooled.Dr. Valerie Wirtschafter is a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Foreign Policy, and the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative. She says the situation in Gaza is ripe for exploitation by bad actors.“The supply of credible information is low, the demand for it is extremely high, so in that space misinformation — potentially disinformation — can circulate quite a bit,” says Wirtschafter.Why is Israel’s invasion of Gaza more difficult to parse than even the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia? ...

In Florida farmland, Guadalupe feast celebrates, sustains 60-year-old mission to migrant workers

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

NARANJA, Fla. (AP) — Martin Monjaraz takes special pride in helping to organize the Guadalupe festival on the grounds of St. Ann Mission, where he first embraced the Catholic faith as a teen after moving from Mexico to work in the surrounding farmland decades ago.“Here there’s a way to welcome that it’s always like we’ve known one another forever,” Monjaraz said by the large tent where hundreds of people had been streaming in since well before dawn Sunday to bring roses, poinsettias, candles and prayers to a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe.The feast draws millions of pilgrims to the main basilica in Mexico City and to churches big and small across the Americas around Dec. 12, which marks the anniversary of one of several apparitions of the Virgin Mary witnessed by an Indigenous Mexican man named Juan Diego in 1531. For St. Ann mission church, where Miami’s urban sprawl fades into farmland and the Everglades’ swampy wilderness, it’s the most important event of the year — both c...

As Navalny vanishes from view in Russia, an ally calls it a Kremlin ploy to deepen his isolation

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The loss of contact with Alexei Navalny at the prison colony where the opposition leader was being held likely signals a Kremlin effort to tighten his isolation while President Vladimir Putin runs for reelection over the next three months, Navalny’s spokeswoman said Tuesday.Worries about Navalny spread Monday after officials at the facility east of Moscow said he was no longer on the inmate roster. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said his associates and lawyers have been unable to contact him for a week. Prison officials said he has been moved from the colony where he has been serving a 19-year term on charges of extremism, but they didn’t say where he went.Prison transfers in Russia are notoriously secretive, with authorities providing no information about the whereabouts of inmates for weeks until they reach another facility and are given permission to contact relatives or lawyers.“We now have to look for him in every colony of special regime in Russia,” Yar...

DeSantis attorneys ask federal judge to dismiss Disney’s free speech lawsuit

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis are asking a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss a free speech lawsuit filed by Disney after the Florida governor took over Walt Disney World’s governing district in retaliation for the company opposing a state law that banned classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The planned hearing is the first time oral arguments are being made in federal court in Tallahassee over Disney’s claim that DeSantis used state powers to punish the entertainment giant in violation of the First Amendment. The governor’s attorneys are arguing that the case should be dismissed, claiming DeSantis is immune since he doesn’t enforce any of the laws that removed supervision of the government from Disney supporters.Any decision U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor makes could determine who controls the governing district that performs municipal services such as planning, mosquito control and firefi...

Ranked choice voting bill moves to hearing in front of Wisconsin Senate elections committee

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A bipartisan bill that would dramatically change how Wisconsin residents choose congressional candidates by asking them to rank their top choices instead of voting for one of two candidates is headed for its first public hearing.The state Senate’s election committee was set to take public comment on a proposal Tuesday that would implement a ranked choice system known as final five. Under that system, voters would rank their top five candidates from all parties rather than just the top Democratic and Republican contenders. The hearing is the first for the complicated plan that would drastically change in how Wisconsin voters pick their representatives in Washington.“The aim of Final Five Voting is not to change who gets elected; it is designed to change the incentives of those who do get elected,” the bill’s chief authors — Republican Reps. Ron Tusler and Tony Kurtz, Democratic Rep. Daniel Riemer, Republican Sen. Jesse James and Democratic Sen. Jeff Smith —...

Prosecutors want a former Albanian prime minister under house arrest on corruption charges

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian prosecutors on Tuesday asked lawmakers to strip former Prime Minister Sali Berisha of his parliamentary immunity because he did not abide by their previous decision to report regularly while he is being investigated for corruption. Prosecutors of the country’s Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime, which was created in 2019 to handle high-level graft cases, asked for Parliament’s clearance to put Berisha under arrest or house arrest. Berisha, 79, was charged with corruption in October. Prosecutors alleged that his son-in-law, Jamarber Malltezi, had exploited his prime minister’s post to buy land in Tirana owned by both private citizens and the country’s Defense Ministry, and build 17 apartment buildings on the property. Berisha and Malltezi say they are innocent and that the case is politically motivated by the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama.Berisha considered as “unconstitutional” the prosecutors’ request that...

Jeep used in crash-and-grab at West Loop clothing store

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

CHICAGO — Police are investigating after a crash-and-grab at a clothing store in the city's West Loop.The incident happened around 3:10 a.m. Tuesday in the 100 block of North Aberdeen. Police said several people used a Jeep and struck the security gate and front door of the clothing store to gain entry.The offenders then fled the scene in several vehicles with an unknown amount of merchandise. 3 teens among 4 injured after argument leads to shooting on South Side No one is in custody. Area Three Detectives are investigating.

Antetokounmpo leads Bucks past Bulls 133-129 in OT

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:55:10 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo had 32 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 133-129 victory over the Chicago Bulls in overtime Monday night.Brook Lopez and Malik Beasley each had 19 points and Bobby Portis scored 17 for the Bucks, who were coming off a 128-119 loss to Indiana in the semifinals of the In-Season Tournament.DeMar DeRozan had 41 points and Coby White scored 33 for Chicago, which had won four straight. DeRozan also had 11 assists, becoming only the second Bulls player and first since Michael Jordan in 1992-93 with at least 40 points and 10 assists in a game. Jordan did it nine times in his career.Torrey Craig hit the second of two free throws to put Chicago up 119-118 to open overtime, but the Bucks answered with seven straight points, capped by Antetokounmpo’s layup to make it 126-119 with two minutes remaining.Milwaukee left the door open, though, by missing three of six free throws down the stretch. DeRozan scored on a dunk to pull Chicago wi...