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Philippines says a coast guard ship and supply boat were rammed by Chinese vessels at disputed shoal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat Sunday off a contested shoal, Philippine officials said, in an encounter that heightened fears of an armed conflict in the disputed South China Sea.A top Philippine security official told The Associated Press there were no injuries among the Filipino crew members and an assessment of the damage to both vessels was underway. The official said that the two incidents near Second Thomas Shoal, where China has repeatedly tried to isolate a Philippine marine outpost, could have been worse if the vessels were not able to maneuver rapidly away from the Chinese ships. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authority to publicly discuss the matter. China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, including over islands closer to Philippine shore, have raised tensions and brought in the United States, a long...

Collin Morikawa wins Zozo Championship in Japan for first PGA Tour title in more than two years

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

INZAI CITY, Japan (AP) — American Colin Morikawa called winning the Zozo Championship in Japan “incredible,” a special way to close the season for a player whose great grandparents emigrated from the country.But more important was a victory — anywhere, any victory — after a 27-month winless streak on the PGA Tour that started prompting questions about his game.He broke through Sunday with a 7-under par 63 for a six-shot victory at the Narashino Country Club just outside Tokyo.“It feels so good, I can’t even explain it,” Morikawa said of his sixth PGA Tour win. “I knew I was going to get here at some point. It’s like getting your first win, your first major.”He said he realized that people were asking questions about why he had not won for so long. He said the victory was extra special since his wife Katherine Zhu was in the gallery and gave him a kiss when he came off No. 18.“She hasn’t been to a win since — it’s been a long time since she’s actually been at the tourname...

Belgium announces new security measures after Brussels attack

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

The Belgian federal government is taking five short-term measures in response to information about the events leading up to last week’s attack in Brussels that left two Swedish nationals dead, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Sunday.The move follows the resignation on Friday of Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, who took responsibility for the failure of Brussels prosecutors to act on a request from Tunisia last year to extradite the attacker, Abdesalam Lassoued, one of its nationals. Lassoued was killed by Belgian police after the October 16 attack.“The government accepts its responsibility,” De Croo said at a press conference announcing the measures to strengthen the country’s security apparatus and ensure a rapid and coordinated response to potential threats.Brussels public prosecutor Tim De Wolf blamed understaffing in his office for the failure to act on the extradition request. “That helps to explain the course of events, but it is ...

UN warns of Gaza catastrophe as Israel prepares invasion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

The ongoing blockade of Gaza has pushed the enclave’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation, Cindy McCain, executive director of the U.N.’s World Food Program, warned on Sunday.Israel has besieged the densely populated coastal region for almost two weeks, refusing to allow in food and medical aid amid fears it could fall into the hands of the militant group Hamas. As Israel intensified airstrikes over the weekend in preparation for a ground invasion, the first 20 aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday after being blocked near the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing.But a lot more aid needs to be delivered, McCain told POLITICO. “Right now we’re facing a catastrophe in the area with the inability to feed people and the inability for the people to find anything to eat at all,” McCain said in an interview Sunday. “These people are going to starve to death unless we can get in.”Her warning was echoed by the regional director of the relief organization Mercy Corps,...

Chancellor Scholz voices outrage at antisemitic agitation in Germany ‘of all places’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that he is outraged by the antisemitic agitation spreading even to Germany as the Israel-Hamas war rages, and warned at the inauguration of a new synagogue that the vow of “never again” must be unbreakable.Scholz’s remarks come as antisemitic incidents have been rising in Germany following the violent escalation of the war in Gaza. Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Berlin on Wednesday, prompting Scholz to say that attacks on Jewish institutions would never be accepted.He expanded on his comments at the inauguration of the temple in Dessau, a city in eastern Germany whose synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis 85 years ago.He spoke of the “barbaric terror of Hamas” in describing the Oct. 7 militant attack from Gaza on Israeli civilians, and concern about the tensions that have been rising since.“I am deeply outraged by the way in which antisemitic hatred and inhuman agitation have been breaking out since that fatef...

UK records a fourth death linked to a storm that battered northern Europe

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Police said Sunday that a fourth person has died in Britain during a storm that pounded the U.K. and northern Europe with gale-force winds and torrential rain.Derbyshire Police said a woman in her 80s was found dead at a home in Chesterfield, central England. Her death was being linked to flooding in the area.In nearby Derby, the River Derwent reached its highest-ever recorded level on Saturday during a storm that brought 8 inches (200 mm) of rain to parts of Britain.Since Thursday, at least five people have died in the storm — named Babet by the U.K. Meteorological Office — that battered Britain, northern Germany and southern Scandinavia with powerful winds, heavy rain and sea surges.In Britain, a man and a woman were killed after being swept away by floodwaters, and another man died when a tree fell on his vehicle. In Germany, a 33-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her car on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn on Friday.A search was continuing f...

CBC mainly remains off X, citing low traffic six months after scaling back presence

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

OTTAWA — Six months after the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Radio-Canada scaled back its use of the social media site X, the public broadcaster says it will mostly remain off the platform formerly known as Twitter because it doesn’t bring in a lot of traffic.Leon Mar, a spokesperson for the public broadcaster, said CBC’s focus is to engage Canadians on other platforms and to continue driving traffic to its websites and streaming services. “The audience and engagement that we get from X is small. Among our social media platforms, X is among the smallest sources of traffic,” he told The Canadian Press when asked why it hasn’t fully returned.Although CBC was unwilling to share its data, Mar pointed to a 2022 Reuters Institute report that shows just 11 per cent of Canadians use X for news. CBC significantly reduced its presence on X in April after the social media company labelled it as “government-funded media.” Similar tags also appeared on ...

Canada ‘confident’ Israel didn’t strike hospital in Gaza

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

Defence Minister Bill Blair said late Saturday evening that Canada has a “high degree of confidence” that Israel did not strike the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday. Blair said in a statement that a military analysis found the strike, which the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said killed hundreds of people, was more likely caused by an “errant rocket” fired from the Gaza Strip.The pronouncement from Ottawa came days after the United States said its own review found that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast, which the Gaza Health Ministry said killed hundreds of people.President Joe Biden said during a visit to Israel on Wednesday that he was confident the “other team” bore responsibility.On Thursday, facing pressure to provide Canada’s position on the matter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was taking “all necessary steps” to form its own understanding of what happened.The Canadia...

1 dead in auto-pedestrian crash at I-35 frontage road, Braker Lane

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — One person died after a car them early Sunday morning, according to Austin-Travis County EMS. The crash happened around 5 a.m. on the Interstate 35 southbound frontage road at Braker Lane in north Austin. An adult died at the scene, according to EMS.Austin Police said the I-35 southbound frontage road and both directions of Braker Lane are closed as of 6 a.m.

Readers and writers: Find humor in a restaurant memoir and courage in a novel of betrayal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:33 GMT

A waiter’s valentine to food and his friends at a now-closed Minneapolis restaurant and fiction about a woman who stands up to corporate betrayal give us two good reading options today. “The Last Supper Club: A Waiter’s Requiem”: by Matthew Batt (University of Minnesota Press,.$22.95)I enjoyed teaching very much, but at the end of nearly every day, most of my students regard my classes as — and this is a direct quote from one of my student evaluations — a course that “I thought was going to suck but didn’t.”Restaurants, on the other hand — if they’re good ones — well, we don’t just nourish. We delight. — from “The Last Supper Club”Matthew Batt thought he was going to write a book during his sabbatical from teaching at the University of St. Thomas (he never mentions the name of the college). But he soon found he didn’t have enough money to make it through months outside the clas...