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Australians decided if Indigenous Voice is needed to advise Parliament on minority issues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians voted in a referendum Saturday on whether to enshrine in the nation’s constitution a mechanism for Indigenous people to advise Parliament on policies that affect their lives.Proponents said creating an Indigenous Voice via the constitution would recognize the special place that Indigenous people have in Australian history while giving them input in government policies.Opponents argued it would divide Australians along racial lines without reducing Indigenous disadvantage.Bipartisan support regarded as essential in Australia for successfully changing the constitution never emerged, and Indigenous leaders were divided on the idea.WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS?The Aboriginal people of Australia’s mainland are culturally distinct from Torres Strait Islanders who come from an archipelago off the northeast coast. So Australia’s Indigenous population is known collectively as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.They accounted for 3.8% of ...

Evolving crisis fuels anxiety among Venezuelans who want a better economy but see worsening woes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

SAN JOAQUIN, Venezuela (AP) — The avocado trees across the road from Jose Hernandez’s tin-roofed home help feed several retirees in the rural community of San Joaquin along a highway two hours southwest of Venezuela’s capital. He and his neighbors cut the avocados with the owner’s permission and sell them to motorists at a nearby toll booth or on the streets of the nearby city of Valencia, which has not emptied out as much as San Joaquin from migration over the last decade.They live day by day. Their pension these days amounts to $3.70 a month, only 20 cents more than the cost of a gallon of bottled water. So no sales mean no food.“Sometimes, we even have to barter avocados for food in other neighborhoods. We want jobs!” Hernandez, 67, exclaimed while sitting on his dusty, cement-floor porch with a neighbor. “He was a carrier, I sold merchandise downtown. Right now, there is no work. All the young people have already left. This neighborhood is desolate!”The political, social a...

Australians cast final votes in a referendum on whether to create an Indigenous Voice

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians cast their final votes Saturday in the country’s first referendum in a generation, deciding whether to tackle Indigenous disadvantages by enshrining in the constitution a new advocacy committee.The proposal for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament bitterly divided Australia’s Indigenous minority as well as the wider community.Indigenous activist Susanne Levy said the Voice would be a setback for Indigenous rights imposed by non-Indigenous Australians.“We’ve always had a voice. You’re just not listening,” she said, referring to the wider Australian population.Levy spent Saturday at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, an Indigenous land rights protest that has existed in the heart of the national capital, Canberra, since 1972.The collection of ramshackle shelters and tents in a park used to be across a street from the Australian Parliament before lawmakers moved into their current premises in 1988. Old Parliament House is now a museum that was used S...

Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders mass evacuation with ground attack looming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza after Israel’s military urged about 1 million people to leave for the territory’s south ahead of an expected ground invasion following the surprise attack a week ago by the ruling Hamas militant group — despite warnings from the U.N. that evacuating nearly half of Gaza’s population would be calamitous.Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with their possessions crowded a main road southward from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes hammered the territory Friday. Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people.The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people abducted in Hamas’s assault on Israel nearly a week ago.In urging the evacuation, Israel’s military said it planned to target underground Hamas hideouts around Gaza City. But Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fea...

Louisiana governor’s race ignites GOP hopes of reclaiming position as Democrats try to keep it blue

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana’s gubernatorial election commences Saturday, Republicans are hoping to reclaim the governor’s mansion after an eight-year hiatus while Democrats try to keep the coveted position in a state where Donald Trump garnered a majority of the votes during the last two presidential elections. Six major candidates — four Republicans, one Democrat and one independent — are vying for the seat that is being vacated by Gov. John Bel Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South. With Edwards unable to run due to consecutive term limits, the election opens a huge opportunity for Republicans to win Louisiana’s top position.Louisiana is one of three states with a gubernatorial election this fall, along with Mississippi and Kentucky.In total, 14 candidates are competing to succeed Edwards under a “ jungle primary ” system in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear together on the same ballot on Saturday. If no candidate tops 5...

Emotions run high as Poland prepares to hold a high-stakes national election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is holding an election Sunday that many view as its most important one since the 1989 vote that toppled communism. At stake are the health of the nation’s democracy, its legal stance on LGBTQ+ rights and abortion, and the foreign alliances of a country on NATO’s eastern flank that has been a crucial ally to Ukraine.Political experts say the election will not be fully fair after eight years of governing by a conservative nationalist party that has eroded checks and balances to gain more control over state institutions, including the courts, public media and the electoral process itself.Opponents of the ruling Law and Justice party fear it could be their last chance to preserve the constitutional system won at great cost through the struggle of many Poles, from former President Lech Walesa to the millions who supported his Solidarity movement.The election “will decide the future of Poland as a country of liberal democracy, a system that has bee...

Sen. Joe Manchin considers independent 2024 run, warns party system could be nation’s ‘downfall’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has benefited from waiting to reveal where he stands as the swing vote in a chamber closely divided between Democrats and Republicans.He’s taken the same approach when it comes to the next phase of his political career: The moderate Democrat has teased possible retirement, a run for reelection to the Senate or even a presidential campaign in 2024 — possibly as an independent candidate. During a multi-day trip to West Virginia’s capital this week, the 76-year-old expressed growing frustration with the polarized U.S. two-party system.“I’m having a hard time — I really am,” he said while touring a Charleston metal stamping plant. “The two-party system, unless it changes, will be the downfall of our country.”Manchin’s visit included the metal plant, which began being revitalized during his governorship, and an Amtrak station renovated with infrastructure funds he helped secure. He told reporters he was “getting...

Venezuelan migrants who are applying for temporary legal status in the US say it offers some relief

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — After receiving death threats for openly opposing Venezuela’s socialist government, Víctor Macedo and his wife fled, staying for a time in Spain before coming to the U.S. For nearly two years, they have lived in Florida with the support of family and friends as they tried to build a better life for their two children.They are among several hundred thousand Venezuelans living in the U.S. whose lives could change now that President Joe Biden’s administration is offering them temporary legal status making it easier for them to get authorization to work in the U.S.“We have 18 months of peace of mind, without the fear of being deported. That is the greatest benefit, and the greatest fear,” said Macedo, 38, who dreams of opening a bakery like the one his father had in Venezuela. “We can now begin to earn income as God intended. We no longer depend on the relatives we have here.”To qualify for Temporary Protected Status, Venezuelans must have arrived in the U.S. by July ...

‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse will cut across the Americas, stretching from Oregon to Brazil

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun cuts across the Americas on Saturday, stretching from Oregon to Brazil.For the small towns and cities along its narrow path, there was a mix of excitement, worries about the weather and concerns they’d be overwhelmed by visitors flocking to see the celestial event, also called an annular solar eclipse. Unlike a total solar eclipse, the moon doesn’t completely cover the sun during a ring of fire eclipse. When the moon lines up between Earth and the sun, it leaves a bright, blazing border.Saturday’s path: Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas in the U.S., with a sliver of California, Arizona and Colorado. Next: Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil. Much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere gets a partial eclipse. Viewing all depends on clear skies — part of the U.S. path could see clouds. NASA and other groups planned to livestream it. With a chance of...

Hunter Biden investigations lead to ethical concerns about President Joe Biden, AP-NORC poll shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:24:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ethical concerns are casting a shadow over President Joe Biden as he seeks reelection amid ongoing investigations into his son Hunter Biden and a presidential impeachment inquiry, with a new poll showing that 35% of U.S. adults believe the president himself has done something illegal.An additional 33% say they think the president behaved unethically, but not illegally. And 30% say Biden did nothing wrong, according to the poll. The results of the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reflect both a vast political divide and skepticism about the morality of government leaders. House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden, seeking to tie the president to the foreign business dealings of his 53-year-old son. Hunter Biden is facing a separate criminal indictment by a special counsel after a plea deal in a tax and gun case fell apart. Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, since his father was vi...