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Biden to help mark decades of relative peace in N Ireland

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Joe Biden is in Northern Ireland to participate in marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to this part of the United Kingdom after the U.S. helped negotiate an end to decades of sectarian violence that killed thousands.On his first presidential visit to Northern Ireland, Biden was set to deliver congratulations and encourage the country’s leaders to work on universally beneficial trade and economic policies when he speaks Wednesday at a business development event at Ulster University’s campus in Belfast.But Biden was not expected to make any attempt to help resolve a new political crisis that has rattled the Good Friday peace deal and put Northern Ireland’s government on pause.Instead, the Democratic president will deliver at least two messages, said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who is traveling with Biden. “Congratulations on 25 years of the Good Frid...

Trump and Iowa evangelicals: A bond that is hard to break

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — When South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott returns to Iowa on Wednesday, he will meet privately with a group of pastors at a Cedar Rapids church. For someone considering a Republican presidential campaign, the visit is part of a decades-old courtship ritual in the state that kicks off the nomination process. Born-again Christians are the most influential group in Iowa’s GOP caucuses, giving faith leaders particular sway in helping organize voters and shape the results.But in the early phase of the next presidential campaign, Scott’s joyful proclamations of his Christian faith face an unlikely obstacle. Like other Republicans eyeing the White House, he is navigating an evangelical community that is faithful to former President Donald Trump, the thrice-married former reality television star who once supported abortion rights and spent decades boasting of his sexual prowess. That history repelled many Iowa evangelical leaders during the last competitive Repu...

Adrift in the Atlantic, a boat of death and lost dreams

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

BELLE GARDEN, Tobago (AP) — Around 6:30 a.m. on May 28, 2021, off the beach near the Caribbean island of Tobago, a narrow white-and-blue boat drifted onto the horizon. From a distance, it seemed no one was aboard. But as fishermen approached, they smelled death. Then they saw the decomposing bodies of more than a dozen Black men. What is clear now, but was not then, is this: 135 days earlier, 43 people were believed to have left a port city across the ocean in Mauritania. They were trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.Instead, they ended up here, on the other side of the Atlantic. At least seven boats carrying dead bodies appearing to be from Northwest Africa washed up in the Caribbean and in Brazil in 2021. These “ghost boats” — and likely many others that have vanished — are in part an unintended result of years of efforts and billions of dollars spent by Europe to stop crossings on the Mediterranean Sea. That crackdown helped push migrants to return to the far longer, more obsc...

Dem, GOP convention picks show Midwest’s political influence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Donald Trump won the White House in 2016 by breaking up the famed electoral “blue wall,” snatching the Midwestern battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, along with Pennsylvania, from Democrats. He lost the White House four years later when those same states flipped to Joe Biden.Both parties are already zeroing in on the Midwest ahead of next year’s presidential election, each choosing to hold their national conventions in the region. Republicans will have their event in July 2024 in Milwaukee, the largest city in the swing state of Wisconsin. Democrats announced Tuesday that they would hold theirs the following month in Chicago, just 90 miles away, in solidly blue Illinois. In picking Chicago over other finalists New York and Atlanta, the Democratic National Committee said, the party was “returning to the Midwest, a critical Democratic stronghold” and called Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota part of the “blue wall” crucial to Biden’...

Takeaways of AP Investigation into deadly migrant voyage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

For nearly two years, The Associated Press assembled puzzle pieces from across three continents to uncover the story of a mysterious Mauritanian boat — and the people it carried to death as they drifted across the Atlantic Ocean and appeared in the Caribbean island of Tobago on May 28, 2021. Mauritania, a large country in northwest Africa, is nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) away from Tobago. Evidence found on the boat — and its style and color as a typical Mauritanian “pirogue”— suggested the dead were likely African migrants who were trying to reach Europe but got lost in the Atlantic.Here are some takeaways from the AP investigation that included interviews with dozens of relatives and friends of missing migrants, officials and forensic experts, as well as police documents and DNA testing:—43 young men from Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and possibly other West African nations, too, are believed to have boarded the boat 135 days earlier. AP has identified 33 of them by name.—They departe...

Brazil’s Lula visits China, seeking ties and Ukraine support

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva flew off to China on Tuesday to strengthen ties with his nation’s biggest trade partner and win support for his long shot push for peace in Ukraine. Lula wants Brazil, China and other nations to help mediate the war as part of his nation’s return to the world stage, but his proposals to end the conflict have irked Ukraine and some in the West. Less controversial is the Brazilian and Chinese mutual interest in trade after a rocky period under Lula’s predecessor. China and Brazil are expected to sign at least 20 bilateral agreements during Lula’s two-day stay, according to the Brazilian government. Lula plans to visit Shanghai and Beijing, and meet with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Friday.The two leaders are expected to discuss trade, investment, reindustrialization, energy transition, climate change and peace agreements, the Brazilian government said.China is Brazil’s biggest export market, each ...

Latest inflation data could show further gradual improvement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The persistence of high inflation will likely be on display — again — in Wednesday’s latest government report on consumer price increases. Yet there may also be some signs of improvement in the March inflation data, with the prices of some key items, such as gasoline, furniture and new cars, potentially rising more slowly or falling outright. Compared with 12 months earlier, economists predict that inflation slowed sharply, from 6% in February to 5.2% in March, according to a survey by the data provider FactSet. But excluding volatile food and gas costs, so-called core prices are thought to have ticked up to 5.6% from a year ago, compared with a 5.5% rise in February. That figure has changed little since December. The Federal Reserve and many private economists regard core prices as a better measure of underlying inflation. Rapid price increases in the economy’s vast service sector — ranging from rents and restaurant meals to haircuts and auto insurance...

Authorities search swollen St. Croix River after teen fell off cliff in Minnesota state park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

An 18-year-old man is missing in the swollen St. Croix River after he fell off a rock ledge Tuesday evening at Interstate State Park in Taylors Falls, Minn.According to the Chisago County sheriff’s office, the Wisconsin resident fell shortly after 6 p.m. when he apparently lost his footing and tumbled off the cliff and into the river.An extensive rescue effort involving multiple area agencies was launched, but the victim, who wasn’t immediately identified, remained missing at nightfall.The sheriff’s office said the search was paused and would resume in the morning.It also asked the public not to search on or near the river. A large spring runoff is feeding the St. Croix, leading to a high flow rate. That, combined with debris typically seen during the snowmelt, has made for dangerous search conditions on the river, the sheriff’s office said.Interstate State Park and its twin state park in Wisconsin straddle the rocky St. Croix gorge between Taylors Falls and St. Croix Fa...

Wentzville School District and city officials battle over new apartment developments

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. - A political showdown in St. Charles County is pitting the Wentzville School District against the Dardenne Prairie Mayor and Board of Aldermen.The two are battling over the new Prairie Encore development at Feise and Bryan roads. The development would include restaurants, shops, a gas station, and a 190-unit apartment building.The project is funded with $68 million in bonds, with the developer, Kaleco, paying no property taxes for 12 years.The Board of Aldermen is set to give final approval to the deal at a meeting on Wednesday, April 12, at 6 p.m. The meeting date was set for March. However, it comes one week before new members of the board take office. One of those board members, Laura Gittemeier, won a landslide victory over incumbent Kasey Reilly. Prairie Encore was the key issue in the race, with Gittemeier opposing it and Reilly supporting it. Top story: “Easter Miracle” for Lake St. Louis officer critically injured by suspected drunk driver People b...

St. Louis realtor’s work highlighted during Fair Housing Month

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS - According to Census Bureau data, white St. Louisans are nearly twice as likely as black St. Louisans to own a home. Black homeownership rates remain the lowest of all racial groups in the country. April is Fair Housing Month, and there’s a St. Louis realtor who’s advocated for fair housing since the 1970s. Her name is Barbara Heise.“White man has gained wealth by selling his house, right? Not so in the black community," Heise said.Heise’s fight for fair housing can be traced back to the days of blockbusting. Top story: “Easter Miracle” for Lake St. Louis officer critically injured by suspected drunk driver “You could get me to tears on this subject because of my passion. It’s just not fair," she said. More than 40 years later, she’s still standing up for equity and inclusion in St. Louis communities.“Affirmatively furthering fair housing doesn’t have anything to do, nothing to do with affordable housing," Heise said.Heise co-founded the nonprofit “With Action...