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Pakistan’s army says it killed 8 militants during a raid along the border with Afghanistan

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

Pakistan’s military said its forces raided a militant hideout in a former stronghold of local Taliban in the country’s northwest near the border with Afghanistan, triggering an intense shootout that killed eight militantsIn an overnight statement, the military stated that the intelligence-based operation took place on Sunday in the South Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and that troops seized weapons and ammunition from the hideout.No further detail was given about the militants’ identities. But blame usually falls on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban who also often target troops across t...

Supporting nonprofits on GivingTuesday this year could have a bigger impact than usual

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

Supporting nonprofits on GivingTuesday this year could have a bigger impact than usual. Why? Because nonprofits and industry groups say donations so far are down compared with previous years. Many organizations will look to make up the difference on GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which started as a hashtag in 2012 and has grown into one of the biggest fundraising dates on the calendar. Many nonprofits will run matching campaigns, meaning a supporter has pledged to double or sometimes triple the donation of other, smaller donors.Combine that boost with businesses that match employee donations and it can really add up, said Tim Pries, who runs a small production studio in the Bay Area matching employee gifts to nonprofits of up to $1,000. “It’s just kind of exponential, which makes me happy in my heart that a little bit goes a much longer way, especially on that day,” Pries said. A large amount of charitable giving happens at the end of the calendar year, coinciding wi...

Final trial over Elijah McClain’s death in suburban Denver spotlights paramedics’ role

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The third and final trial over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain after he was stopped by police in suburban Denver involves homicide and manslaughter charges against two paramedics. It’s a prosecution experts say enters largely uncharted legal territory by levying criminal charges against medical first responders.McClain had been stopped and put into a neck hold by police that left him weakened when the paramedics arrived and injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine. The 23-year-old Black man went into cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and was pronounced dead three days later.Initially no one was charged because the coroner’s office could not determine exactly how McClain died. But in 2021, social justice protests over the 2020 murder of George Floyd drew renewed attention to McClain’s case, prompting an indictment against the paramedics and three officers. Jury selection in the paramedics’ trial is set to begin Monday.“What we saw thre...

Ukraine is shipping more grain through the Black Sea despite threat from Russia

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world.Now, more of the grain is getting unloaded from overcrammed silos and heading to ports on the Black Sea, set to traverse a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a U.N.-brokered agreement this summer that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war.“It was tight, but we kept working … we sought how to accept every ton of products needed for our partners,” facility general director Roman Andreikiv said about the end of the grain deal in July. Ukraine’s new corridor, protected by the military, has now allowed him to “free up warehouse space and increase activity.”Growing numbers of ships are streaming toward Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and heading out loaded with grain, metals and other cargo despite the threat...

Trump hints at expanded role for the military within the US. A legacy law gives him few guardrails

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Campaigning in Iowa this year, Donald Trump said he was prevented during his presidency from using the military to quell violence in primarily Democratic cities and states.Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units. While deploying the military regularly within the country’s borders would be a departure from tradition, the former president already has signaled an aggressive agenda if he wins, from mass deportations to travel bans imposed on certain Muslim-majority countries.A law first crafted in the nation’s in...

Rosalynn Carter tributes will highlight her reach as first lady, humanitarian and small-town Baptist

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

AMERICUS, Ga. (AP) — Rosalynn Carter will make her final journey to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center on Monday as her family begins three days of memorials for the former first lady and global humanitarian who died Nov. 19 at the age of 96.After brief ceremonies in the Carters’ native Sumter County in south Georgia, Rosalynn Carter’s remains will travel by motorcade to Atlanta, where she will lie in repose at The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.The library will be open from 6 to 10 p.m., offering the most direct opportunity for the public to pay their respects during the three-day tribute. Two funerals, set for Tuesday in Atlanta and Wednesday in the Carters’ tiny hometown of Plains, are for invited guests. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, longtime friends of the Carters, lead the dignitaries expected to attend the Atlanta service. Motorcade routes will be open throughout the schedule. Rosalynn Carter’s burial Wednesday in Plain...

‘Get Ready With Me’: Video genre that focuses on everyday life is everywhere – and not slowing down

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Get Ready with Me” — to go on a date, go to work or … get fired?“Get Ready with Me” videos are everywhere these days, and they’re as straightforward as the name suggests. Social media users, often influencers, invite viewers to watch them get ready to do something or go somewhere. And embedded in the storyline are the skin care, the makeup, the hairdo and all the glam that goes into looking hot — and, of course, the personal stories about life or love that arrest your attention.GRWM videos, as they’re also known, are part of a trend of “with me” content that has gained popularity over the past decade. Think “Clean with Me” videos where users watch people clean their homes for inspiration or pleasure. Or hours-long “Study with Me” videos for students who want buddies for intense cramming sessions but don’t have any friends nearby. More than a decade after debuting on YouTube in the days when creator content was still relatively new, “Get Ready with ...

How did humans get to the brink of crashing climate? A long push for progress and energy to fuel it

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

Amidst record-high temperatures, deluges, droughts and wildfires, leaders are convening for another round of United Nations climate talks later this month that seek to curb the centuries-long trend of humans spewing ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.For hundreds of years, people have shaped the world around them for their benefit: They drained lakes to protect infrastructure, wealth and people. They dug up billions of tons of coal, and then oil and gas, to fuel empires and economies. The allure of exploiting nature and burning fossil fuels as a path to prosperity hopped from nation to nation, each eager to secure their own energy.People who claimed the power to control nature and the energy resources around them saw the environment as a tool to be used for progress, historians say. Over hundreds of years, that impulse has remade the planet’s climate, too — and brought its inhabitants to the brink of catastrophe.CONTROLLING THE ENVIRONMENTMexico City traces its roo...

What’s Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2023? Hint: Be true to yourself

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In an age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose and Elon Musk turned Twitter into X, the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.” Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company’s site but were boosted to new heights throughout the year, editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” he said ahead of Monday’s announcement of this year’s word. “What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”Sokolowski and his team don’t delve into the reasons people head for dictionaries and websites in search of specific words. Rather, they chase the data on lookup spikes and world events that correlate. This time around, there was no particularly huge boost at any given time but a constancy to the increased...

Still looking for deals on holiday gifts? Retailers are offering discounts on Cyber Monday

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:46:56 GMT

Consumers are scouring the internet for online deals as they begin to cap off the five-day post-Thanksgiving shopping bonanza with Cyber Monday. Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of our everyday lives and much of the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday –- a term coined back in 2005 by the National Retail Federation –- continues to be the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it. For several major retailers, the “Cyber Monday” sale is a days-long event that begins over the weekend. Amazon’s, for example, kicked off on Saturday and runs through Monday. Target’s two-day event began overnight on Sunday, while Arkansas-based Walmart kicked off its most recent discounts Sunday evening. Consumer spending for Cyber Week — the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — provides a strong indication on how much shoppers are willing to spend during the holiday season. Shoppers ha...