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Turkey’s finance chief heralds $50.7 billion deals with UAE as Erdogan tours Gulf nations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have signed deals worth $50.7 billion as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rounded off a three-country tour of the Gulf.“Today we have witnessed the signings of several strategic agreements and (memoranda of understandings) worth a total of $50.7 billion to further cement ties between the UAE and Turkey,” Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted late Wednesday.The agreements involve export financing, earthquake bonds, energy, defense and other sectors.Erdogan embarked on a tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE on Tuesday, seeking trade and investment opportunities for Turkey’s floundering economy.Inflation in Turkey was 38% last month, down from a high of 85% in October, while the budget deficit widened to $8.37 billion in June, seven times the level of a year earlier.Ankara has repaired ties with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over the last two years following a decadelong split with the Arab states.Timothy Ash, an emerging markets analyst at ...

They fled Syria’s shattering civil war. Now, Syrian refugees in Jordan fear being forced to return

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — As Jordan hosted regional talks this spring aimed at ending Syria’s isolation after more than a decade of civil war, Syrian refugee Suzanne Dabdoob felt a deep pressure in her brain and in her ears, she said, a fear she hadn’t felt since arriving to Jordan 10 years ago.Ahead of the meeting, Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed that 1,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan would be allowed to safely return home — a test case for the repatriation of far greater numbers. Jordan’s top diplomat spoke only of voluntary returns. But panic spread through working-class east Amman, where Dabdoob and many other Syrians have built new lives in multistory, cement-block buildings. “I would rather die right here than go back to Syria,” said Dabdoob, 37, whose home was razed by airstrikes in the Syrian city of Homs. She fled to Amman with her five children, her accountant husband, who dodged military service, and her sister, who she said is wanted for abandoning her civil service...

The wait is over as Powerball finally has a winner for its jackpot worth over $1 billion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

A winning ticket has been sold in California for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the 3rd largest in the history of the game.The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24. The California Lottery said on Twitter that the winning ticket was sold in Los Angeles at Las Palmitas Mini Market.Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $1 billion to $1.08 billion at the time of the drawing, moving it from the seventh largest to the sixth largest U.S lottery jackpot ever won.The winner can choose either the total jackpot paid out in yearly increments or a $558.1 million, one-time lump sum before taxes.The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw more players. The largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion Powerball in November.The last time someone had won the Powerball jackpot was April 19 for a top p...

Suspect in fire at Wyoming abortion clinic set to take plea deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge is set to consider a plea deal Thursday for an abortion opponent who investigators say burned Wyoming’s first full-service abortion clinic in years.Lorna Roxanne Green, 22, told investigators she broke in and used gasoline to set fire to the Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper because it was giving her anxiety and nightmares, according to court documents.Green is scheduled to appear in court for a change-of-plea hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne. Details of her proposed deal with prosecutors have been off-limits to the public pending Johnson’s approval of the agreement.Charged with arson, Green faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, though a plea deal could bring a lighter sentence. Green has been free from jail since March while her case proceeds, and she pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in June.Her deal with prosecutors, revealed by court documents filed last week, suggests sheR...

New York considers ban on cash prize contests for hunting coyotes, squirrels, some other wildlife

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The contests have names such as Predator Slam, Squirrel Scramble and Final Fling for Fox, sometimes challenging hunters to bag the heaviest coyote or the heftiest bunch of squirrels to win a cash prize. While participants seek prey in the name of fundraising, animal rights advocates are training their sights on contests they see as senseless slaughters. With bans in eight states, activists are now looking to New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering a proposal recently approved by the Legislature.“It’s wrong that fringe groups in these extreme contests can use our wildlife resources for money,” said Brian Shapiro, New York state director of the Humane Society of the United States. “I can’t think of any other natural resource that is used that way.”Opponents want to put an end to annual events held around upstate New York that target wildlife like coyotes, rabbits, raccoons and foxes.Campaigns against the competitions often feature pictures of coyote carcas...

Lotto 649 winning numbers for Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

TORONTO — The winning numbers in Wednesday’s Lotto 649 draw for an estimated $5 million: 15, 25, 30, 31, 40 & 48.Bonus: 22 The winning number for the guaranteed $1 million: 67514930-02In the event of any discrepancy between this list and the official winning numbers, the latter shall prevail. The Canadian Press

Record Heat in Three Continents; U.S. Dome of Heat to Expand.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

Extreme heat broiling broad sections of three continents setting new heat records which eclipse any readings recorded over the instrument age extending back to the late 1880'sPhoenix, AZ which recorded a 118° high temp on Tuesday and has seen the most consecutive 105° or higher max temps (19 of them) logged a record high nighttime min overnight of 97°, the 9th consecutive low temp at or above 90°, another new record—NASA scientist, Dr. James Hansen, credited with sounding the first widespread alarm of our move toward a superheated climate in testimony before congress in the late 1980s says "we are damned fools” for not acting vigorously on warnings of a superheated climate.Hansen's comments are contained in this article Wednesday morning in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/.../climate-crisis-james...ABOUT THE HEAT IN PHOENIX, ARIZONAPhoenix isn't alone in this country with the heat—far from it. But as the Associated Press notes in its reporting on the heat there: "No other ...

Progressing Aaron Judge talks Shohei Ohtani’s pursuit of history: ‘Records are meant to be broken’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

ANAHEIM – If Shohei Ohtani breaks the American League’s single-season home run record this year, Aaron Judge won’t be disappointed.“Records are meant to be broken,” said Judge, who set the bar at 62 last season. “It’s just a record, and it’ll be exciting for the game if he went out there and got 63-plus. So we’ll see what happens.”The red-hot Ohtani, who went deep against the Yankees on Monday, entered Wednesday’s game with 35 homers in 94 contests, putting the two-way sensation slightly behind Judge’s 2022 pace. Judge had 37 home runs through 94 games last year, and he ultimately topped Roger Maris in his 161st game.Of course, a multi-homer night here and there could change Ohtani’s trajectory. Judge isn’t too preoccupied with the chase as he recovers from a torn ligament in his right big toe, but he knows he’ll get another crack at the record if Ohtani surpasses him this year.“I still g...

Jason Aldean’s new music video was filmed at a lynching site. A big country music network pulled it.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

By MARIA SHERMAN (AP Music Writer)Country music star Jason Aldean ‘s latest music video for “Try That In A Small Town,” lasted just one weekend on Country Music Television before the network pulled it in response to an outcry over its setting and lyrics.In the video, Aldean — who has been awarded country music artist of the decade by the Academy of Country Music — performs in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. This is the site of the 1946 Columbia race riot and the 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate.Aldean’s video, which was released last Friday, has received fervent criticism online, with some claiming the visual is a “dog whistle” and others labeling it “pro-lynching.”Interspersed between performance footage of Aldean are news clips of violent riots and flag burning. A Fox News chyron reads: “State of emergency declared in Georgia.”“Cuss out a ...

Twins bats stay hot, and so does Jhoan Duran in 6-3 victory over Mariners

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:20 GMT

SEATTLE — Luis Castillo came into Wednesday’s game against the Twins with a 6-7 record, but that was deceiving. The right-hander had struck out 122 batters and walked only 28 in 112⅓ innings and could boast of a 2.96 earned-run average.So, after the Twins beat the Mariners, 6-3, to improve to 5-1 on their West Coast road trip, they were particularly proud of how they handled Castillo, even if the veteran did give Seattle a quality start.The Twins touched Castillo for three earned runs on six hits, two of them solo home runs from Edouard Julien and Max Kepler, and had him on the hook for a 3-0 deficit before Seattle tied the game on Eugenio Suarez’s two-run homer in the seventh inning.The Twins scored the go-ahead run when Max Kepler scored on a passed ball by Seattle catcher Tom Murphy, and Alex Kirilloff added a two-run homer in the ninth before Jhoan Duran pitched the ninth for his 16th save, getting out of a jam with the help of some 104 mph fastballs.Yet, getting Castillo out of...