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Swedish citizen goes on trial on charges of collecting information for Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The trial opened Monday of a Russia-born Swedish citizen charged with collecting information for the Russian military intelligence service GRU for almost a decade.Sergey Skvortsov, 60, is accused of “gross illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and against a foreign power,” according to prosecutor Henrik Olin who has identified the foreign power as the United States.Skvortsov was arrested in November together with his wife in a predawn operation in Nacka, outside Stockholm. Swedish media reported that elite police rappelled from two Black Hawk helicopters to arrest the couple.Skvortsov has been in custody since his arrest and denies any wrongdoing, according to his defense lawyer, Ulrika Borg. His wife was released without charge following an investigation by Sweden’s security agency.The trial is being held at the Stockholm District Court. It is the second trial in recent years of people accused of spying on Sweden for Russia and its military intellige...

France’s Rugby World Cup preparations disturbed by calls to drop Chalureau in racism controversy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

Only days before the Rugby World Cup starts in France, the home team’s preparations for the tournament have been disrupted by calls to remove one of its players because of a historic racism charge.The controversy started over the weekend after injured lock Paul Willemse was replaced in France’s 33-man squad by Bastien Chalureau.Chalureau’s inclusion was immediately questioned by several left-wing French lawmakers, who said they will ask Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra to intervene and make sure the player would not be selected because of a sentencing back in 2020 for racially motivated acts of violence.At the time, Chalureau was tried for an assault on two rugby players, Yannick Larguet and Nassim Arif. Although he admitted to the violence, Chalureau denied the racist nature of the attack and has appealed the six-month suspended prison sentence he was handed.“I’ve got all kinds of stories where I’ve been a jerk, that I accept. But racist? Never,” he told L’Equipe newspape...

Biden celebrates unions and job creation during a Philadelphia Labor Day appearance

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden, who often says he’s the most pro-union president in history, touted the importance of unions and applauded American workers in building the economy during a Labor Day appearance in Philadelphia on Monday. The Democratic president spoke about how the economy is recovering from the crippling coronavirus pandemic as about what his administration has done to pay for infrastructure improvements, and he cited the importance of unions in building the middle class. “This Labor Day we’re celebrating jobs, good-paying jobs, jobs you can raise a family on, union jobs,” Biden told the crowd gathered Monday. Instead of standing at the podium, the president held the microphone in his hand and walked around the stage behind signs that read “UNION STRONG.”Labor Day, a holiday honoring workers, comes as the U.S. has added jobs and more people have begun looking for work, the most since January, all news Biden is eager to highlight as he seeks reel...

Montreal police allege man intentionally drove into a group of people, injuring six

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

Montreal police say they have arrested a 22-year-old man suspected of intentionally driving a car into six people on Sunday evening.Police say none of the people who were struck suffered life-threatening injuries, though several were seriously hurt.The event occurred shortly after 8 p.m. in a park in the city’s Montréal-Nord borough.Police say a fight had broken out between several people before the man struck a group with a vehicle.Police spokeswoman Const. Véronique Dubuc says the man is expected to appear in court today. She says the investigation is ongoing and the cause of the fight remains unknown. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2023. The Canadian Press

A drone attack on Myanmar border police reportedly kills 5. A resistance group claims responsibility

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A drone attack on a police headquarters in a major border town in eastern Myanmar has killed at least five officials including a senior army officer and a district administrator, members of two emergency rescue teams and media reports said Monday.The attack, carried out Sunday evening in two stages, is believed to be the deadliest aerial bombing targeting high-ranking security and administrative officials since armed resistance was launched more than two years ago against the military that seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but after security forces cracked down with lethal force, many local armed resistance groups were formed and loosely organized into what is called the People’s Defense Force, or PDF. It’s the armed wing of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which views itself as a country’s legitimate administrative body.The PDF has allied themselves w...

Army veteran who served in Afghanistan is named foreign minister in Netherlands’ caretaker Cabinet

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Hanke Bruins Slot, a military veteran who served with the Dutch army in Afghanistan, was appointed Monday as the Netherlands’ new foreign minister. She replaces Wopke Hoekstra, who is in line to become a European Union commissioner.Bruins Slot had been interior minister in the caretaker administration of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte. His government will remain in power until a new coalition is formed after a Nov. 22 general election. Polls suggest Bruins Slot’s Christian Democrat Appeal party will suffer a heavy defeat in the fall election. The party put her forward early Monday to become the country’s top diplomat. The government confirmed her appointment later in the day. “As an Afghanistan veteran and the secretary of state in charge of (military) intelligence and security, Hanke is more than qualified to make this move to the Foreign Ministry,” Christian Democrat leader Henri Bontenbal said in a statement.As foreign minister,...

Russia’s Putin says there will be no new grain deal until the West meets his demands

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea won’t be restored until the West meets its obligations to facilitate Russian agricultural exports.Putin made the statement after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who helped broker the deal seen as vital for global food supplies, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other goods that developing nations rely on.But Russia refused to extend the deal in July, complaining that an agreement promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored. It said restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade even though it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year.Putin said that if those commitments were honored, Russia could return to the deal “within the nearest days.”He also said that Russia is...

Summer’s over for UK politicians as Sunak faces a crisis over crumbling schools

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers headed back to Parliament on Monday after their summer break. But thousands of U.K. children won’t be returning to their classrooms this week, because their schools are at risk of collapse from crumbling concrete.The news is a start-of-term headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he scrambles to shore up flagging support for the governing Conservative Party ahead of a national election next year.Sunak insists it’s not his fault that more than 100 schools were told last week — days before the start of the new school year — to shut some or all of their buildings because they contain a type of lightweight, air-filled concrete widely used in construction between the 1950s and the 1990s.School leaders are scrambling to find classroom space in nearby establishments or resorting to online instruction after the government’s last-minute directive, sparked when three schools thought to be safe suffered collapses over the summer.The government says the ...

The EU wants to limit protections for wolves as farmers fear for their livestock

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission announced on Monday that it is weighing whether to adjust rules to limit protections for wolves as a resurgence in the canine numbers has triggered growing tensions with farmers concerned about the safety of their livestock.The announcement came almost exactly a year to the day after a wolf killed a pony belonging to the president of the European Union’s executive branch, Ursula von der Leyen, early last September at her family farm in Hannover, northern Germany.“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans,” von der Leyen said in a statement. “I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary.”Experts and environmental groups estimate that up to 19,000 wolves may be present in the 27 EU member countries, with populations of more than 1,000 of them thought to roam in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain.Their numbers are estimate...

Back-to-office plans fall flat amid arbitrary rules, lack of communication

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamie Burke was happy with her job. Working in property management, the extroverted Vancouverite went into the office every day, took meetings in different buildings and attended networking events. When the pandemic hit and her job became remote, Burke struggled at first. But she grew to love the flexibility it afforded her. By the time her employer was asking people to come back to the office more frequently, Burke didn’t want to give up her new-found freedom. She left that job in 2021 and tried several other roles before launching her own business. In each new role, she found herself clashing with hybrid work policies that were more rigid than she had anticipated. That’s how she realized she wanted true flexibility, not just a part-time office job.“I really wanted the agency to be able to choose the work style that was going to work best for me.”Burke is one of many workers for whom the pandemic introduced a whole new world of work, and for whom...