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Taiwan’s VP defies Beijing with New York City transit stop

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

Taiwan’s vice president Lai Ching-te defied pressure from Beijing to make a transit stop in New York City on Saturday en route to a state visit to Paraguay.Lai, the leading presidential candidate in Taiwan’s upcoming election, is using the Big Apple stop to meet with members of the Taiwanese American community. On Saturday, China began conducting a three-day military exercise in the East China Sea a few hundred miles from Taiwan — a typical show from Beijing to express its displeasure with the island’s foreign political activities.But China’s reaction was relatively muted given that China’s ambassador to the U.S., Xie Feng, told a crowd at the Aspen Security Forum last month that aborting Lai’s stopovers was his “top priority.” These travel visits often attract the eyes of watchers in Beijing and Washington, given their contentious nature for China, but American protocol dictates that they remain low key.Lai announced his arrival in New York on Saturday evening in a p...

Virginia player wounded in deadly attack returns for a new season as an inspiration to his teammates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Virginia running back Mike Hollins knows he will never be the same, and admits that the position of football on his priorities list “has shrunk.” He still can’t wait to run onto the field with his Cavaliers brothers for their opener this season.“I can only imagine the emotions that’ll be flowing through my body. I just — I literally can’t. I have no words because the spring game hit me like a sack of rocks, and I didn’t expect it at all, so I can only imagine,” he said. “I’m ready, though. I’m ready for it.”Hollins, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was one of two survivors of a shooting last November that left three teammates dead. He was shot in the back, needed several surgeries and spent a week in the hospital before beginning a long rehabilitation.The shootings, which also left student Marlee Morgan injured, rocked the team and the community and caused the Cavaliers to cancel their final two games.Hollins uplifted his teammates when he returne...

Russia evacuates 2,000 in Far East flooding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Over 2,000 people have been evacuated from flooded areas of the Primorye region in Russia’s Far East, emergency officials said Sunday.Heavy downpours flooded villages in the region in the aftermath of Typhoon Khanun, which battered Japan earlier this week before making its way toward the Korean peninsula. The remnants of the storm, now downgraded from typhoon status, were slated to bring double the monthly rainfall to some areas of the region over the weekend, according to Russian state media.“More than 2,000 people, including 405 children, have been evacuated in Primorye,” the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Telegram.Over 4,300 residential buildings were flooded and 28 settlements cut off by floodwaters, with 16 of the region’s districts affected.On Friday, local officials said that downpours had already caused floods in seven districts and killed at least three people — a woman and two children, ages 10 and 12.The Associated Press

After checkered results in state polls, Malaysian leader Anwar needs to unite polarized nation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — After a checkered victory in Saturday’s state elections that saw strong gains by the Malay-Islamist opposition, analysts say Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim faces a daunting task in uniting an increasingly polarized nation and strengthening his nascent unity government.Anwar’s multi-coalition unity government and the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) bloc, that includes the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, retained control of three states each, as widely expected. While the PN bloc, led by former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, failed to alter the status quo, it did make major inroads in the government-controlled states and nearly swept all the seats on its own turf on the back of continous support from the ethnic Malay majority.PN took 60% of the 245 state assembly seats contested, relying on the contention that Anwar and his multiethnic coalition would not protect Malays and Islam. Still, analysts said Sunday that what ma...

Kelly McGrath’s path to general manager of the Xcel Energy Center — from planning for the Pope to 50 Cent and the Minnesota Wild

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

Kelly McGrath took a moment between back-to-back meetings to walk the floor of the Xcel Energy Center, where Matt “Fuji” Fujinaka, director of operations, measured and chalked the spots where chairs would be deposited for last Monday night’s Nickelback concert, a nearly sold-out draw for almost 14,000 hard rock fans.In a few days, McGrath — who was named general manager and executive director of the “X” in July — will do the same before the Sam Smith concert, the Pearl Jam concert and the Greta Van Fleet concert, the latter being a rock band that developed a modern following on social media platforms like TikTok.“It’s great for the business,” said McGrath, who has been navigating event-based sales for the better part of 30 years, most of them at the X. “That’s translating to ticket sales. It’s hard to sell 14,000 tickets. Not every band can do it.”Then it’s on to country artist Old Dominion, guitar legend Eric Clapton...

Jonah Goldberg: America blew it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

America blew it.I generally support special prosecutor Jack Smith’s indictments of Donald Trump. The classified documents case is open-and-shut as far as I can tell. As for the charges dealing with the former president’s attempt to steal the election, they are a heavier lift as a strictly legal matter. Some charges may not clear the evidentiary and legal hurdles in their path, but are still worth bringing.Trump supporters disagree. Their arguments span from anti-American idiocy (Trump is America’s Alexei Nalvany) to good-faith, nuanced complaints about the insufficiency of the statutes Smith is relying upon.But even if Smith has the law and evidence entirely on his side, the fact that we’ve come to prosecuting a former president is proof of the breakdown of republicanism.That Trump was nominated, never mind elected, president is a sign of collective, systemic failure. Blame is not evenly distributed among the parties, voters, the media and other institutions,...

Literary calendar for week for Aug. 13

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

Michelle Brafman (Courtesy of the author)MICHELLE BRAFMAN: Author of “Washing the Dead” discusses her chilling and satirical novel “Swimming with Ghosts,” about mothers arguing at their children’s swim meet, raising issues of the ghost of family addiction. Brafman teaches fiction writing in Maryland in the Johns Hopkins University MFA program. 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.CHEESEBURGER ON STAGE: Red Balloon Storybook Theatre presents its third production, “Are You a Cheeseburger?”, adapted from Monica Arnaldo’s picture book “Are You a Cheeseburger?” about a raccoon, a seed, and a cheeseburger dream. Suitable for audiences aged 2 and older. Go to redballoonbookshop.com. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.TIM JOLLYMORE: Minnesotan signs copies of his new book “The Nothing That Is Not There,” and his previous ones. 10-11:30...

Other voices: The federal government is a fiscal mess

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

Decades of excessive spending, paid with debt, are hitting America’s credit rating. On Aug. 1 Fitch Ratings downgraded the United States federal government’s rating from AAA, the best, to AA+, one notch below. Fitch blamed “the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, the erosion of governance” and two decades of “debt standoff” over raising the debt ceiling.The debt size has soared from $6.2 trillion in 2002 to $32.7 trillion today — five times higher.It’s now 123% of the entire U.S. economy. That occurred under both Democratic and Republican presidents.The worst was Republican President Donald Trump, under whom it rose from $20.2 billion in 2017 to $29.6 billion in 2021 — $9.4 billion more.A big problem is that not just Democrats but even Republicans won’t begin to discuss entitlement reform, as Dan Mitchell, the president of the Center for Freedom and Pro...

Q&A: FamilyMeans celebrates 60 years of helping MN families cope with debt and other challenges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

When a New Richmond, Wis., couple found themselves more than $100,000 in debt a few years ago, they turned to FamilyMeans for help.The Stillwater-based nonprofit, celebrating its 60th anniversary this month, counsels individuals, couples and families, and provides consumer credit-counseling services, caregiver support and youth development programs.Jim Kroening, president of of FamilyMeans in Stillwater. (Courtesy of FamilyMeans)In the case of the New Richmond couple, who owed $89,000 to 11 credit card companies and about $20,000 to other creditors, FamilyMeans’ consumer credit counselors were able to set them up on a repayment plan that they followed to a T, said Jim Kroening, the organization’s president.The couple didn’t go into debt taking lavish vacations or buying expensive cars; it was an accumulation of “life expenses” and medical bills, Kroening said. “A lot of it was housing repairs – replacing roofs and furnaces and AC units. They came in thinking that there was no way th...

Skywatch: A great meteor shower and great summer scorpion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:34 GMT

Last week in Skywatch, I told you about the great Perseid meteor shower that continues this weekend, peaking late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Earth is plowing into debris trail left in the wake of Comet Swift-Tuttle. In the dark countryside, it’s possible to see more than 50 meteors or “shooting stars” an hour, and even a good number in urban areas with limited light pollution. My advice for watching the Perseids, or any other meteor shower, is to lie on the ground or a reclining lawn chair and roll your eyes around the sky. Watching a meteor shower with family and friends is fun because you have many more eyes watching the big sky. The best time to watch the Perseids is between midnight and the start of morning twilight.One of the great summer constellations is Scorpius the Scorpion, prowling just above the south-southwest horizon in the early evening. You certainly won’t crane your neck to see it!It’s the 10th-brightest constellation in t...