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Elon Musk visits Israel to meet top leaders as accusations of antisemitism on X grow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

Elon Musk, who’s been under fire over accusations of antisemitism flourishing on his social media platform X, paid a visit Monday to Israel, where he toured a kibbutz that was attacked last month by Hamas militants and was set to meet with top leaders. The billionaire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the Kfar Azza kibbutz, which was stormed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Musk, wearing a protective vest and escorted by a phalanx of security personnel, used his phone to take photos or videos of the devastation, according to video released by Netanyahu’s office. Musk also was due to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Benny Gantz, a former defense minister who’s now part of a special war Cabinet. Government spokesperson Eylon Levy declined to say whether Musk was invited or came on his own. X, formerly known as Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment. Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, tweeted earlier Monday about a deal t...

New incentives could boost satisfaction with in-person work, but few employers are making changes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Justin Ryan Horton has two jobs. When he’s not working 24-hour shifts as a firefighter, the 22-year-old is working as an administrative assistant for a local community college from his home in Colorado Springs.Firefighting is, of course, not a work-from-home kind of job. So when the community college position gave Horton the choice to clock in remotely, he took it.“I’m gone a lot being a firefighter,” Horton said. “Instead of coming home and then seeing my family for a few minutes before leaving to go to my other job… I feel like I have just more time with (them) when I work from home.”The COVID-19 pandemic upended what working looks like for millions of people all around the world. While many jobs can only be done in person, swaths of employers shuttered their physical doors and moved their workplaces increasingly online.Workers have since begun to return to the office in waves, at least for part of the week, and navigating that transition is...

Indonesia’s 3 presidential contenders vow peaceful campaigns ahead of next year election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s three presidential hopefuls vowed a peaceful race on Monday, a day before campaigning for next year’s election officially began as concerns rose their rivalry may sharpen religious and ethnic divides in Southeast Asia’s largest democracy.The election, due in February, will determine who will succeed President Joko Widodo, serving his second and final term.Hundreds cheered as the presidential and vice presidential candidates arrived at the General Election Commission compound in central Jakarta. Students from state-owned institutions held a parade with a colorful marching band.The election is shaping up to be a three-way race between the current defense minister Prabowo Subianto and two former governors, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo. If none of the candidates secures more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a runoff between the top two is scheduled for June 26.The three vowed to hold an amicable 75-day election campaign “without …...

Tensions simmer as newcomers and immigrants with deeper US roots strive for work permits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — In New York, migrants at a city-run shelter grumble that relatives who settled before them refuse to offer a bed. In Chicago, a provider of mental health services to people in the country illegally pivoted to new arrivals sleeping at a police station across the street. In South Florida, some immigrants complain that people who came later get work permits that are out of reach for them.Across the country, mayors, governors and others have been forceful advocates for newly arrived migrants seeking shelter and work permits. Their efforts and existing laws have exposed tensions among immigrants who have been in the country for years, even decades, and don’t have the same benefits, notably work permits. And some new arrivals feel established immigrants have given them cold shoulders.Thousands of immigrants marched this month in Washington to ask that President Joe Biden extend work authorization to longtime residents as well. Signs read, “Work permits for all...

Poland’s president is to swear in a government expected to last no longer than 14 days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president is swearing in a government Monday expected to last no longer than 14 days, a tactical maneuver that allows the conservative Law and Justice party to hang onto power a bit longer — and make more appointments to state bodies.Following a national election in October, President Andrzej Duda is due to once again swear in Mateusz Morawiecki, who has held the job of prime minister since late 2017. According to the constitution, Morawiecki will have 14 days to try to build a coalition that can win a majority of support in the parliament. But that looks like a lost cause because Morawiecki has no coalition partners after his nationalist and conservative Law and Justice party lost its parliamentary majority and no other parties want to join its government.Morawiecki says he is trying to find partners to govern with, but himself puts his chances at “10% or even less.” Critics of Morawiecki and Duda — who is politically aligned with Law and Justic...

Czech labor unions stage a day of action in protest at spending cuts and taxes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

PRAGUE (AP) — Labor unions staged a day of protests and strikes across the Czech Republic on Monday to voice their opposition to the government’s package of cuts and austerity measures meant to keep the ballooning deficit under control.The unions are also demanding more money for the education and healthcare sectors and are protesting proposed changes to the pension system.Prime Minister Petr Fiala said his government was not ready to give in because the measures are “absolutely necessary.”“We have to stop the state indebtedness, ” Fiala said.Some 74% or over 7,200 nursery, elementary and high schools across the country were either fully or partially closed Monday in the biggest such protest since the establishment of the Czech Republic in 1993, unions said. Several universities supported the unions’ move.Workers at hundreds of companies, including some state offices and major carmaker Skoda Auto, were planning to join the protests, mostly by stopping work for an hour or two.The uni...

Delaware County’s top prosecutor becomes fifth Democrat to run for Pennsylvania attorney general

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Jack Stollsteimer, the top prosecutor in heavily populated Delaware County, will run for Pennsylvania attorney general in 2024, he announced Monday, seeking an office that played a critical role in court defending Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential battleground.Stollsteimer joins a Democratic primary field that is already four-deep in which he will be the only elected prosecutor. However, his competition for the Democratic nomination features veterans of the campaign trail and the courtroom.In his campaign for attorney general, Stollsteimer will lean heavily on his experience as the twice-elected district attorney of Delaware County, Pennsylvania’s fifth-most populous county sitting between Philadelphia and Delaware.“I am uniquely qualified because I do that work every single day in the fifth-largest county in Pennsylvania,” Stollsteimer said in an interview. Stollsteimer, 60, has been a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, a top official in the...

More than half a million people left without power in Crimea, Russia and Ukraine after huge storm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

More than half a million people were left without power in Crimea, Russia and Ukraine after a storm in the Black Sea area flooded roads, ripped up trees and took down power lines, Russian state news agency Tass and Ukraine’s energy ministry said. Meanwhile, the Moscow region experienced its heaviest snowfall in 40 years, the governor said. The storms and snowfall were part of a weather front that left one person dead and many places without electricity amid heavy snow and blizzards in Romania and Moldova on Sunday.The head of Russia’s national meteorological service said the storm that hit Crimea was the most powerful since record keeping began, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. The storm also hit southern Russia and sent waves flooding into the beach resort of Sochi, blew the roof off a five-story building in Anapa and damaged homes and schools in Kuban, the state news agency said. It also caused a cargo ship to run aground near Anapa.Local Russia-installed offici...

Police arrest suspect in shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent in Vermont

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting of three young men of Palestinian descent who were attending a Thanksgiving holiday gathering near the University of Vermont campus Saturday evening.Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Jason J. Eaton, 48, while conducting a search of the shooting area in Burlington at 3:38 p.m. Sunday, the Burlington Police Department said in a statement.Authorities collected evidence during a search of Eaton’s apartment in a building in front of the shooting location. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, police said.The attack that injured the three men around 6:25 p.m. Saturday may have been a hate crime, authorities previously said.Two of the men were in stable condition and the other suffered “much more serious injuries,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement Sunday. The three, all age 20, were walking during a visit to the home of one of the victim's relatives when they were confronted by ...

Warmer, wetter weather returns in a few days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:29:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- We expect highs to stay into the middle to upper 50s Monday under a partly sunny to mostly cloudy sky. We'll see 60s returning Tuesday and highs up near 70 starting Thursday.Highs for the next 7 daysA bigger storm system approaches from the south Wednesday night into Thursday bringing a decent chance of heavier rain throughout the day. Models have backed off on rain chances for the Hill Country, but areas east of I-35 are still in with a decent chance of some meaningful precipitation of a quarter inch or more.Rain favors areas along and east of I-35 on ThursdayWe dry out Friday, but wet weather returns for the weekend. NEW BLOG: NOAA updates December, winter forecasts Winter Weather Outlook: What a strong El Niño could mean for rainfall and ice risk Austin Interactive Weather Stats (2023) FIRST WARNING WEATHER: Stay up to date with your Central Texas forecast, sign up for our weather newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters Stay up-to-date with the First Warning W...