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Church sex abuse revelations are unwelcome distraction as Pope Francis visits scandal-hit Portugal

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — When a panel of experts read aloud some of the harrowing accounts they had collected from recently discovered victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church, the country’s senior bishops squirmed in the auditorium’s front-row seats.During a live television broadcast, the experts reported in February that at least 4,815 boys and girls had been abused since 1950, most aged 10-14. Before the stunning findings, senior Portuguese church officials had maintained there had been only a handful of cases of clergy sex abuse. They lost even more credibility with a response so clumsy and hesitant that victims were inspired to form Portugal’s first survivor advocacy group to press for compensation.Pope Francis will wade into the quagmire of Portugal’s reckoning with its legacy of clergy abuse and cover-up when he arrives in Lisbon next Wednesday to participate in World Youth Day, the international Catholic youth rally. While there is no mention o...

Indonesian President Widodo arrives in China and plans talks with Chinese leader Xi

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived Thursday in China and planned to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.The two will discuss investments and “various strategic projects for Indonesia and China,” including in trade and health, as well as regional and global issues, Widodo said in a statement.During his three-day visit, Widodo will also meet with Chinese businesspeople to discuss possible investments in Indonesia, especially in the petrochemical, renewable energy and health sectors, the statement added.Widodo is to attend the opening of the FISU World University Games in Chengdu in southwestern China. Indonesia is, along with China, a member of the Group of 20 major developed and emerging economies. China is Indonesia’s largest trade and investment partner.Indonesia wants a bigger role as a supplier of nickel and other raw materials to China’s fast-growing electric car brands.The Associated Press

Greek wildfires reach the outskirts of Athens. EU agency records a huge spike in carbon emissions

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

RHODES, Greece (AP) — Wildfires reached the outskirts of Athens on Thursday as strong gusts of wind caused flare-ups around Greece, disrupting highway traffic and rail services.The fires have raged across parts of the country during three successive Mediterranean heat waves over two weeks, leaving five people dead, including two firefighting pilots, and triggering a huge evacuation of tourists over the weekend on the island of Rhodes.Water-dropping helicopters and a ground crew scrambled early Thursday to a blaze in Kifissia, just north of Athens, which was quickly put out.Near the central city of Volos, a wildfire burned on two fronts, forcing a section of Greece’s busiest highway to close for several hours, while national rail services passing through the area were delayed.Firefighters also battled flames on Rhodes for a 10th successive day, while flare-ups were reported on the island of Evia.Wildfire carbon emissions for July in Greece were the highest by a huge margin — totaling...

Ukraine eases its sports boycott policy to compete against some Russians ahead of Olympics

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has signaled it will no longer bar its athletes from competing against Russians who are taking part in sporting events as “neutral athletes,” a significant easing of its boycott policy a year before the Paris Olympics.A decree dated Wednesday says Ukrainian athletes and teams will only be required to boycott if competitors from Russia or Belarus are competing under their national flags or other symbols, or have signaled allegiance to either of those countries in another way.The change in policy could smooth the way for Ukrainians to compete at next year’s Paris Olympics. Ukrainian athletes previously boycotted events which allowed Russians and Belarusians as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” the preferred term of the International Olympic Committee.It wasn’t immediately clear how the decree would be implemented in practice, but at least one leading Ukrainian athlete competed against a “neutral” Russian competitor on Thursday.Olympic champi...

EU opens antitrust investigation against Microsoft over Office and videoconferencing Teams bundling

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union announced Thursday that it opened a formal antitrust investigation targeting Microsoft into the software company’s Teams messaging and videoconferencing app over concerns that its bundling with its Office productivity software suites gives it an unfair edge over competitors. The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top competition enforcer, said that it would carry out its in-depth investigation “as a matter of priority.”The investigation stems from a complaint filed in 2020 by Slack Technologies, which makes popular workplace messaging software. Slack, owned by business software maker Salesforce, alleged that Microsoft was abusing its market dominance to eliminate competition — in violation of EU laws — by illegally combining Teams with its Office productivity software suite.“Remote communication and collaboration tools like Teams have become indispensable for many businesses in Europe. We must therefore ensure that the markets fo...

Russian helicopter crashes in Siberia, killing 6 people on board and injuring 7

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A helicopter crashed in Russia’s Siberia on Thursday, killing six of those on board and injuring seven, Russian emergency officials reported. The Mi-8 helicopter in the Altai Republic in southern Siberia caught fire as it was landing and brushed against a power line, the Altai branch of Russia’s Emergency Ministry said. It put out a statement online that carried a photo of the chopper’s wreckage on fire. Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the country’s civilian aviation regulator Rosaviatsia, that the helicopter belonged to a private company and was carrying a group of tourists. The total number of people on board is unclear. According to RIA Novosti, a total of 12 passengers and three crew members were on board, but the Emergency Ministry put the total number on board at 13. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled. The Mi-8 is a two-engine helicopter designed in the 1960s. It has been used widely i...

Shell earnings top $5 billion. But that’s nearly half what it pulled in months ago

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

Shell reported Thursday that it earned nearly $5.1 billion in the second quarter, nearly half what the oil and natural gas giant pulled in during the first three months of the year as energy prices have plunged. The British energy company said its adjusted earnings followed lower oil and gas prices, production and trading. The figure was down from $11.5 billion in the same period a year ago and $9.6 billion in the first quarter.Oil and gas prices surged last year after Russia invaded Ukraine, fueling inflation around the world and driving record profits for energy companies, including Shell, British rival BP and others. Prices have since fallen amid weak global economic growth and other factors, leading to lower earnings.“Shell delivered strong operational performance and cash flows in the second quarter, despite a lower commodity price environment,” CEO Wael Sawan said in a statement.The financial earnings have become a political flashpoint in Britain, spurring calls from opp...

‘The Hardy Boys’ stars on nostalgia and appeal of the show as it enters final season

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

TORONTO — As YTV’s “The Hardy Boys” enters its final chapter, the show’s stars say they’re proud of the way the latest screen adaptation of the classic book series has bridged generations of fans since its 2020 debut. “I remember scrolling down a few IMDb reviews and I saw a whole paragraph and it was this guy who went into so much detail about how he’s 60 years old and grew up reading the books and that he now gets to share it with his kids,” said 18-year-old Toronto actor Alexander Elliot, who plays Joe Hardy, the younger of the two titular teenage brothers and amateur mystery solvers.“That kind of just melted my heart and the ability to reach every part of that legacy is really special.”Rohan Campbell,the 25-year-old Alberta-bornactor who plays older brother Frank Hardy, said the show’s appeal — much like recent TV and film iterations of older stories and pop culture phenomena — comes down to nostalgia.“I can’t imagine how cool it must be as a ...

Musk’s X takes over @x handle from longtime user

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

(The Hill) - A longtime user of X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, has given over his "@x" handle to the company, saying in an interview that he was offered multiple handles and received free merchandise in exchange. Gene X. Hwang, co-founder of event photo company Orange Photography, told Mashable in an interview published Wednesday that he had been expecting X to contact him on the matter. "[I] got an email basically saying they are taking it,” Hwang told the media outlet in an email exchange, noting that the company’s email came from a generic [email protected] email address and not from a company employee. Hwang, who had the @x handle on the platform for more than 16 years, also said that the company offered him an alternative handle with the history of the @x account so that his account can still be live. The company also offered him a new handle of his choice. "Alls well that ends well,” Hwang posted online Wednesday, debuting his new ha...

As e-bikes proliferate, so do deadly fires blamed on exploding batteries

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The explosion early on a June morning ignited a blaze that engulfed a New York City shop filled with motorized bicycles and their volatile lithium-ion batteries. Billowing smoke quickly killed four people asleep in apartments above the burning store.As the ubiquity of e-bikes has grown, so has the frequency of fires and deaths blamed on the batteries that power them — sparking a push to better regulate how the batteries are manufactured, sold, reconditioned, charged and stored.Consumer advocates and fire departments, particularly in New York City, are urging the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish national safety standards and confiscate imports that don't comply with regulations at the border, so unsafe e-bikes and poorly manufactured batteries can be taken off the streets and out of homes.FILE - A biker stops to look at a pile of e-bikes in the aftermath of a fire in Chinatown, which authorities say started at an e-bike shop and spread to upper-flo...