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Democracy in decline worldwide, new report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

The bedrock of democracy is trembling amid a surge of authoritarianism around the world, according to a report published Thursday. Hard-line rule by current and former leaders, including Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Donald Trump in the U.S. and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, has contributed to the downturn observed in the past few years, the Global State of Democracy 2023 report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) has said. “In Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States, just to name the most familiar examples, the erosion of democratic norms has been engineered by leaders claiming to speak in the name of, and with the authority of, the people,” the new report warned.The six-year decline is the longest consecutive period of deterioration — in which countries with net declines outnumbered those with net advances across a range of metrics — since records started being kept in 1975, Seema Shah, the head of IDE...

North Korea outpacing the EU on shell deliveries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

Presented by ASD By JOSHUA POSANER with LAURA KAYALI, CALEB LARSON, PAUL MCLEARY, VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA and JOE GOULD PRESENTED BY View in your browser or listen to audioSNEAK PEEK— Intelligence reports indicate that North Korea has delivered a million artillery rounds to Russia — easily beating the EU’s aim to dispatch the same number to Ukraine.— The Indian government has reportedly reached out to the French government with a request to buy 26 Dassault-made Rafale fighter jets.— Five European countries will work on a Spanish-led project worth €100 million to define what a joint interceptor would look like.Good morning and welcome to Morning Defense. Tips to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] or follow us at @joshposaner,@LauKaya and @calebmlarson.DRIVING THE DAYPYONGYANG BEATS BRUSSELS: North Korea has delivered more than a million artillery s...

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant starts 3rd release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began its third release of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the sea Thursday after Japanese officials said the two earlier releases ended smoothly.The plant operator discharged 7,800 tons of treated water in each of the first two batches and plans to release the same amount in the current batch through Nov. 20.Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said its workers activated the first of the two pumps to dilute the treated water with large amounts of seawater, gradually sending the mixture into the Pacific Ocean through an undersea tunnel for an offshore release.The plant began the first wastewater release in August and will continue to do so for decades. About 1.34 million tons of radioactive wastewater is stored in about 1,000 tanks at the plant. It has accumulated since the plant was crippled by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in 2011.TEPCO and the government say...

Executions in Iran are up 30%, a new United Nations report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran is carrying out executions “at an alarming rate,” putting to death at least 419 people in the first seven months of the year, the United Nations chief said in a new report. That’s a 30% increase from the same period in 2022.Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report to the U.N. General Assembly on the human rights situation in Iran that seven men were executed in relation to or for participating in nationwide protests, sparked by the September 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was picked up by the morality police for her allegedly loose headscarf in violation of Iran’s Islamic dress code.In all seven cases, information received by the U.N. human rights office “consistently indicated that the judicial proceedings did not fulfil the requirements for due process and a fair trial under international human rights law,” Guterres said. “Access to adequate and timely legal representation was frequently denied, with reports of coerced conf...

Ohio amendment serves as testing ground for statewide abortion fights expected in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Abortion access is expected to play a central role in the 2024 elections. The preview comes next week, when Ohio voters decide whether to enshrine reproductive rights in their state Constitution.The amendment is the only abortion question on any state’s ballot this year, a spotlight that has generated intense attention from national groups and made Ohio a testing ground for fresh campaign messaging — some of it misleading. The amendment has drawn more than $60 million in combined spending so far.Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said Ohio offers a vital proving ground heading into next year’s presidential election, when Democrats hope the abortion issue can energize supporters in contests up and down the ballot. Initiatives seeking to protect access could be on the ballot across the country, including in the presidential swing states of Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.“When we’re able to see how our messaging ...

Maine considers closing loophole that allows foreign government spending on referendums

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine voters are poised to decide whether to ban foreign influence in elections, many of them irked over the $22 million a Canadian utility spent to fight state referendums on a hydropower transmission project.Hydro Quebec, owned by the Canadian province, exploited an election law loophole to fight attempts to stop the project on which the utility stood to gain $10 billion.If voters grant their approval on Nov. 7, Maine would be the 10th state to close the loophole in federal election law that bans foreign entities from spending on candidate elections, yet allows donations for local and state ballot measures, said Aaron McKean, legal counsel for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., which supports the Maine proposal.Maine is the latest state to address foreign influence in elections.A Minnesota election law approved this year includes a prohibition on donations from “foreign-influenced” entities in elections, while Florida and I...

Court fights invoking US Constitution’s ‘insurrection clause’ against Trump turn to Minnesota

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Efforts to use the Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to prevent former President Donald Trump from running again for the White House turn to Minnesota on Thursday with oral arguments before the state Supreme Court, a hearing that will unfold as a similar case plays out in Colorado.Those lawsuits are among several filed around the country to bar Trump from state ballots in 2024 over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, an assault intended to halt Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s win. The Colorado and Minnesota cases are furthest along, putting one or both on an expected path to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never decided the issue.The central argument is the same — that Section Three of the 14th Amendment bars anyone from holding office who previously swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it.In the Minnesota case, the plaintiffs are asking the state’s highest court to de...

At 15, he is defending his home and parenting his sister. One young man’s struggle to stay in school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — This was the summer Deneffy Sánchez was supposed to learn algebra, biology and the other ninth grade classes he failed last year because he was too depressed and overwhelmed. But advancing to 10th grade had to take a back seat for now. He had more pressing concerns.It was June. Deneffy, 15, lay in the twin bed he shares with his mother and little sister, while their new roommate — a stranger only weeks before — lamented having to live with his family.“I would never have let them live here if I’d known how they behave,” Fabiola Del Castillo told a reporter in Spanish. Deneffy’s mother, Lilian López, stood next to her in the cramped room where they all ate and slept.“Saturday is the first. You need to leave by then,” Del Castillo said, turning to López.Saturday was only three days away. For Deneffy, that meant a ticking clock. He had to save his apartment.___No one has stopped the clock for Deneffy or other older students who fell behind when the pandemic shuttered ...

Attorney says van der Sloot’s confession about Natalee Holloway’s murder was ‘chilling’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Natalee Holloway’s parents gathered in a room at an Alabama jail on Oct. 3 to watch the man long-suspected in their daughter’s 2005 disappearance describe how he killed her. For three hours Joran van der Sloot was questioned — first by his own attorney and then by FBI agents — about what happened to Holloway, said Mark White, an attorney representing Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway. “Chilling,” White said of watching and listening to van der Sloot’s account. “It was listening to a person who lacks any sort of moral compass.” Van der Sloot’s admission that he killed Holloway came as part of a plea deal in a related extortion case after months of work and was agreed to by her parents in order to get answers about what happened to their daughter. The plea deal required van der Sloot to make a proffer — providing information about what he knew about the crime — and to let her parents witness the statement in “real time.” Van der Sloot then had t...

Democrats fear that Biden’s Israel-Hamas war stance could cost him reelection in Michigan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:30 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats in Michigan have warned the White House that President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 election in a state he almost certainly can’t afford to lose in his bid for reelection.The situation has prompted the White House to discuss ways to alleviate tensions with some of the state’s prominent Democrats, including several who have been vocal critics of the president about the war. “The message has been relayed. We’ve had calls with the White House. We’ve had calls with DNC officials,” said Abraham Aiyash, the third-ranking Democrat in the state House of Representatives, referring to the Democratic National Committee. “We’ve been clear in saying the humanity should matter, but if that is not a calculation that you’re going to make in this moment, recognize that there will be electoral reverberations to this.”Michigan was a critical compon...