HARTFORD – Two Black Lives Matter protesters arrested in 2020 have won a $41,000 settlement that ends their civil lawsuits against the city of Waterbury and two of its former police officers. The city’s mayor and police chief both said the settlement reached Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Hartford before Judge Janet Hall is a means of ending the case without enduring a protracted trial or admission of wrongdoing. Jury selection was scheduled to begin in March 2025. Rudonna Legree and Juicy Reid-Stith will share the money with their attorney, Alexander T. Taubes, who said he will charge a “reduced” rate for his services to enable his clients to split a larger amount. The pair sued the city and officer David Terni and Capt. Steve Gilmore, claiming their 1st and 14th Amendment rights were violated during a social justice protest in front of the police station on East Main Street on May 31, 2020. They claim the arrests were illegal, and that their rights to speech and assembly were violated. It happened just days after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer got national attention. The two were among 17 protesters arrested during the event. Previously, the city lost its legal bid to end the case on the basis that the officers had qualified immunity based on “arguable probable cause” to make the arrests. A federal court judge disagreed and allowed the case to go forward. Taubes said the consequences of the arrest were particularly severe for Legree, who spent five months in prison when the arrest complicated conditions of a previous criminal record that includes several convictions for larceny and one for interfering with police in 2023. Charges associated with the 2020 arrest were dropped. “It’s important for police to understand the people’s right to speak out, even when the people being criticized are the police,” Taube said. According to the complaint, Legree said she listened to speakers, kneeled, marched through downtown and made her way with Reid-Stith and others to the Waterbury Police Department. Reid-Stith and Legree claim they never heard a police order to disperse from the street. Reid-Stith said “all hell broke loose” when the order to arrest protesters was said to have been made by Gilmore and Terni. Both officers have retired within the past 18 months. Legree claims she was dragged by police into the street and forcibly arrested. Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. said he stands firmly behind the city’s police officers. “From everything I have seen, I believe the officers acted prudently and I continue to support the police department,” he said. “There was no admission of liability.” The decision to settle was made because of the risk trials carry. “This outcome was in the best interest of the city,” Pernerewski said. “And it was a number that made sense and wasn’t all that difficult to reach.” No additional police training is planned to avoid similar conflicts in the future, he noted. “This happened before we had body cameras, which would have been helpful,” the mayor said. “I am comfortable that the officers acted appropriately.” Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said he wasn’t part of settlement discussions involving Taube, two attorneys from the city Corporation Counsel’s Office and U.S. District Court magistrate Robert Richardson. “There was no finding of false arrest or misconduct,” Spagnolo said. “We still stand by the actions police took, which were prudent.” Contact Brigitte Ruthman at bruthman @ rep-am.com.Lawyers for Baltimore City on Wednesday told a judge two drug distribution companies should have to pay $5 billion to curb the raging opioid epidemic here. The approximately weeklong bench trial presided over by Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill kicked off with the testimony of a public health professor the city hired to create a detailed plan to tackle the opioid crisis . Wednesday’s proceeding is the second phase of Baltimore’s civil case against drug distributors McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, now known as Cenora. A jury in November ordered the companies to pay $266 million for flooding Baltimore with hundreds of millions of addictive opioid painkillers from 2006 to 2019. Now it’s up to Fletcher-Hill to determine how much else, if anything, the drug distributors must pay to resolve the crisis jurors found them liable for. Baltimore initially asked Fletcher-Hill to make the companies pay $11 billion but reduced its monetary demands following the first trial. Unlike the monthslong jury trial that ended in November, lawyers did not give dramatic opening statements . Instead, they submitted arguments in writing before this so-called “abatement phase” trial began. Attorneys for Baltimore argue McKesson and AmerisourceBergen should pay at least $5 billion to offset the damage they caused by flooding the area with addictive painkillers with little regard for the havoc the companies knew they would wreak. Their reckless distribution of opioids, the city said, hooked a new generation on painkillers. They then overdosed and died at staggering rates after moving on to heroin and much more potent fentanyl when their prescriptions ran out. “The only viable remedy to reduce the nuisance and minimize its effect is to require Defendants to fund a plan to abate it,” city lawyers wrote. Attorneys for the drug distributors argue the city is abusing the civil justice system to force two companies to pay for societal issues they had no role in. They called the city’s abatement plan a “sweeping, 15-year social policy plan related to opioid addiction and many other social issues — e.g., homelessness, re-entry after incarceration, foster care, job training, food support, and bolstering the health care workforce.” “That type of public policy-making is for the General Assembly, not a Court sitting in equity in a lawsuit involving just two wholesale distributors,” the companies’ lawyers wrote The first witness Wednesday was Susan G. Sherman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a social and behavioral scientist whose decades of research focuses on people who use opioids, primarily in Baltimore. Sherman highlighted the 91-page report she prepared before the trial that made recommendations she predicts in 15 years would bring down the fatality of overdoses by 23%, reduce initiation of nonmedical prescription opioid use by 7.5% and decrease the prescribing of opioids by approximately 55%. Sherman’s plan calls for dramatically expanding access to medication-assisted opioid treatment — regarded by experts as the most effective way to treat opioid addiction. It would also create more programs to reduce the deadliness of drug use and its side effects and offer education campaigns to allow officials to better respond to the crisis. She called it “a full response to the opioid epidemic.” Sherman also proposes expanding measures Baltimore already has, like the distribution of the opioid overdose-reversing drug naloxone and providing clean syringes to reduce the risk of diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B. “It’s a philosophy of meeting people where they are in their drug use,” Sherman testified. Her plan also calls for some initiatives that would be novel in the city, such as overdose prevention sites, which provide people who use opioids a place to administer drugs under the supervision of medical professionals with life-saving resources available. There are at least 200 such places, also known as safe consumption sites, around the world but only two in America, located in New York City, Sherman’s report says. “Despite millions of injections taking place in OPSes worldwide, not one has resulted in a fatal overdose,” she said. Sherman testified that overdose prevention sites have led to people stopping drug use and entering treatment. She said there are plans to open such operations in Rhode Island, Vermont and Minneapolis. Under her plan, the percentage of opioid users in the city who were in treatment would climb from 13% to 41%, she testified. She calls for more easy-to-access treatment programs like Project Connections at Reentry, a van that offers opioid medications to people without identifications or health insurance outside the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center. She also called for more wrap-around services for people in treatment, including transportation, housing support, nutritional assistance, job training and mental health care. “It’s important for people to have stability — food, housing, mental health care — to be successful in treatment,” Sherman testified. ©2024 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Nasdaq surges above 20,000 after US inflation data matches estimates
Norad's Santa tracker was a Cold War morale boost. Now it attracts millions of kidsThe U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing support for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they reflect world opinion. Israel has faced growing international criticism over its conduct in Gaza as it fights Hamas militants, especially when it comes to humanitarian aid for desperate people in the besieged and heavily destroyed territory. Israeli airstrikes in northern and central Gaza killed at least 33 people overnight and into Wednesday, Palestinian medical officials said. Hospital records show one Israeli strike in northern Gaza killed 19 people in a home, including a family of eight — four children, their parents and two grandparents. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas militant in the vicinity of the hospital, part of a blistering offensive in Gaza’s isolated and heavily destroyed north . The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Here's the latest: JERUSALEM — Israeli hospital officials say a young boy is fighting for his life after a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli bus came under fire from a suspected Palestinian attacker late Wednesday, the military said, and Israeli forces are searching for the shooter. Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem says at least three people were wounded in the shooting, which took place just outside the city in an area near major Israeli settlements. The hospital says the boy, who is about 10, is in grave condition. It says two other people, ages 24 and 55, were also hurt. UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban . The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions to support the agency known as UNRWA. The votes culminated two days of speeches overwhelmingly calling for an end to the 14-month war between Israel and the militant Hamas group . General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly. Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a tiny minority speaking and voting against the resolutions. BEIRUT — Israeli forces withdrew from a strategic town in southern Lebanon and handed it back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, the two militaries said Wednesday, marking an important test of the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants. It appeared to be Israel's first pullout from a Lebanese border town captured during this fall’s ground invasion, and comes as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire. The Lebanese army said Wednesday it has deployed units to five positions around the town of Khiam coinciding with the Israeli army’s withdrawal. Israel's military confirmed this was the first town it has turned over to the Lebanese army under the truce, which — if it endures — would end nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has said the truce deal gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 28 people and wounded 25 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. Five people were killed Wednesday by at least three Israeli strikes in different towns in the southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said. The Lebanese army warned civilians to stay out of Khiam until it can clear the area of any unexploded munitions. The strategic hilltop town, located less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war. Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war returned home two weeks ago after a ceasefire took hold , driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to avoid some areas. WASHINGTON — All Russian naval ships that were docked at the Syrian port of Tartus have left and it appears Moscow is now looking for a new base along the coast now that its key ally, Bashar Assad, has been ousted a ruler of Syria, a U.S. official said. It’s not clear where the ships will go, but Russia may seek a new port on the Mediterranean Sea along the African shoreline, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. assessments. The official did not say how many vessels Russia had in Syria at the time Assad was overthrown. Moscow has dedicated the bulk of its military assets to the war in Ukraine. Asked about Tartus on Wednesday, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said that the U.S. is seeing some Russian forces and naval vessels leaving Syria. “They just had one of their key political allies, ousted,” said Singh. “We’re seeing Russia consolidate assets.” — By Lolita C. Baldor UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians are urging United Nations member countries to vote in favor of resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and supporting the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, which Israel has moved to ban in Palestinian territories. The Palestinian mission to the United Nations issued the urgent appeal to the 193 U.N. member nations ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s votes on the resolutions in the General Assembly, whose members have has been listening to two days of speeches overwhelmingly supporting the measures. Israel and close ally the United States have spoken against the resolutions. The Palestinians and their supporters went to the General Assembly after the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution last month demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza. It was supported by the 14 other Security Councilmember nations, but the U.S. objected because the resolution did not include a link to an immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The General Assembly resolution being voted on Wednesday mirrors the Security Council language: It “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.” Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly. But while council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not, though they do reflect world opinion. The second resolution being voted on supports the mandate of the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA which was established by the General Assembly in 1949. It “deplores” legislation adopted by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Oct. 28 banning UNRWA’s activities in the Palestinian territories, which takes effect in 90 days. It calls on the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and uphold its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip.” JERUSALEM — Israel has lifted restrictions on public gatherings and outdoor activities in areas near the Lebanese border in the northern Golan Heights, two weeks after a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The army’s Home Front Command said it was changing its public safety guidelines to “full activity” from “partial activity.” Israel had tightened restrictions on Nov. 25, reflecting concerns that fighting could intensify ahead of any possible cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese militants. The truce went into effect on Nov. 27. In recent days, Israeli tanks and troops have advanced out of Israeli-held territory in the Golan Heights and pushed into a buffer zone inside Syria — a move Israel said it took to prevent attacks on its citizens. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States. BEIRUT - Syria-based Palestinian factions have formed a unified delegation to meet with the country's new rebel-led authorities. The factions said in a statement after their meeting Wednesday at the Palestinian Embassy that they stand by the side of the Syrian people. The factions condemned Israel’s airstrikes on Syria over the past few days that have destroyed much of the assets of the Syrian army. The factions decided to form a joint committee to run the affairs of Palestinians in Syria as well as to be in contact with the new insurgent-led transitional government, following the ouster of President Bashar Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in Syria, many of them refugees, and the factions that have been based in Damascus were close to Assad’s government. Hamas was based in Syria until it left in 2012 a year after the county's civil war began. PRETORIA, South Africa — The United Nations chief says the fall of Syria’s authoritarian government has brought hope to the troubled Middle East, and pledged the global body’s support to the country's new leaders to ensure a smooth transition. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the U.N. wants to see “an inclusive political process in which the rights of all minorities will be fully respected, and paving the way towards a united sovereign Syria, with its territorial integrity fully re-established.” The jihadi-led Syrian rebels took control of the capital Damascus after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving many areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. A Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed force also controls large parts of northeastern Syria. Guterres said he fully trusts the people of Syria to be able “to choose their own destiny”. “I think it is our duty to do everything to support the different Syrian leaders in order to make sure that they come together and are able to guarantee a smooth transition, an inclusive transition in which all Syrians can feel that they belong," Guterres said. “The alternative does not make any sense.” Guterres is in South Africa to discuss the country’s role as it takes over the G20 presidency, among other issues. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike in central Gaza Strip killed four people and injured 16 others Wednesday, health officials said. Those killed and injured were taken to Awda Hospital after the strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the press center at the hospital. Since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October last year, at least 44,805 people have been killed and 106,257 others have been injured, according to the latest update by the Gaza Health ministry. BEIRUT — The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East was in Lebanon on Wednesday meeting with the head of the Lebanese army. In the wake of shocking overthrow of the government in neighboring Syria, the two military leaders discussed the security situation in Lebanon, a statement from the country's army said. U.S. Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, met with the head of the Lebanese army Gen. Joseph Aoun to discuss ongoing American support for the implementation of the U.S.-and French-brokered ceasefire agreement, which ended more than a year of war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has said the truce deal gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 28 people and wounded 25 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. Five people were killed Wednesday by at least three Israeli strikes in different towns in the southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said. On Tuesday, Kurilla was in eastern Syria visiting U.S. military bases and meeting with members of a Kurdish-led Syrian force that is backed by the U.S. He was assessing what CENTCOM described as efforts to counter a resurgence of the Islamic State group. He also visited Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on regional security and counter-IS operations. DAMASCUS — With the fall of Damascus, security forces of the deposed Bashar Assad government and staff withdrew from the Damascus International airport, grounding flights and stranding passengers. The airport has not been functional since. Now, security members of the rebel alliance in control of Syria have taken control of the airport, hoping to restore security, a sense of confidence, and the legitimacy needed to restart flights out of the capital, and from one of the country’s three international airports. “Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” Omar al-Shami, a security official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the shock offensive that led to the fall of Assad, told The Associated Press, calling it "the passage for Syria to breathe.” Al-Shami said security was restored at the international airport nearly 12 hours after the fall of Damascus. The factions entered the capital before dawn, and security members of the rebel alliance took charge before sunset on Sunday. He said he hoped the airport would be operational in less than a week. On Wednesday, a handful of engineers were inspecting four planes that were on the tarmac. Cleaning staff were removing broken furniture, glass windows, and trash from ransacking by looters following the fall of Damascus. The attack, reportedly by mobs and looters from the neighboring areas, left parts of the airport halls destroyed, with smashed furniture and merchandise. “There was a lot damage in the airport’s equipment and facilities in 90% of the sections,” Anis Fallouh, the head of the airport, told the AP. Fallouh said the operations to clean up the airport aim to convince international airlines to resume their flights to Damascus. “Soon in the coming days, flights will resume when we reopen air traffic to Syria and inform countries that Damascus airport is operational. We may start with domestic or test flights to ensure that everything in the airport is operational and avoid any mistakes. Then we can resume international flights.” Engineers were inspecting the four planes on the tarmac, from two Syrian airlines. Some administrative staff were visiting the airport as the new administrators of Damascus work to convince state officials to return to their posts. “We are on the Airbus 320, the technical team. Because of the security vacuum that happened on Sunday, some ill-intentioned people tried to cause damage but thank God the plane is fine — the body, the engines and its systems. Some things are missing and we are trying to fix that,” said Bassam Radi, the engineer in charge of maintenance, said. BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday addressed Berlin's reservations but also willingness to work the Syrian militant group in control of Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. “Nobody overlooks the origins of HTS in the al-Qaeda ideology. It is therefore clear that we will measure HTS by its actions,” Baerbock told reporters in Berlin. “Any cooperation presupposes that ethnic and religious minorities are protected, women’s rights are respected and acts of revenge are prevented.” She said that “whether we like it or not, the HTS militia ... is one of the decisive actors for the future of Syria.” “Together with our partners, we are therefore looking for an adequate way of dealing with HTS, with whom many have had no direct contact for good reasons,” she added. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the insurgent leader also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicted himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese town of Bin Jbeil killed one person and wounded another, the state news agency reported. National News Agency said Wednesday’s airstrike hit a home. It gave no further details and there was no immediate comment from Israeli military. More than a dozen people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since a ceasefire went into effect on Nov. 27, ending the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad . Assad's departure has sparked new fears of instability in the region now wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. Blinken will travel to Jordan and Turkey on Thursday and Friday for talks expected to focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the territory since October 2023. The State Department said Blinken would meet Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II, in the port of Aqaba on Thursday before flying to Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials Friday. Other stops in the region are also possible, officials said. Blinken “will reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. BEIRUT — Insurgents have set on fire the tomb of Syria’s former President Hafez Assad in his hometown in the northwest, a war monitor and a local journalist said Wednesday. Hafez Assad had ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, when his son, Bashar, succeeded him. Both ruled Syria with an iron fist and were blamed for crackdowns that left tens of thousands dead, mainly in the central city of Hama in 1982, and in much of the country since the civil war in 2011. Bashar Assad was ousted over the weekend and fled to Russia where he was given political asylum. Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian journalist Qusay Noor told The Associated Press that the tomb was set on fire Wednesday in the town of Qardaha in Latakia province. JERUSALEM — The United Nations is asking donors for over $4 billion to fund humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, most of it earmarked for war-ravaged Gaza. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also called for the “lifting all impediments to the entry of aid” in its appeal issued Wednesday. U.N. agencies say aid operations in Gaza are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames the U.N. for not distributing it within the territory. The appeal for 2025 includes $3.6 billion for Gaza and about $450 million for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has destroyed vast areas of the besieged territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million. Many have been displaced multiple times and are now crammed into squalid tent camps with little in the way of food or other essentials. Most of the population relies on international aid. JERUSALEM — The president of Paraguay addressed the Israeli parliament Wednesday ahead of the reopening of the country’s embassy in Jerusalem. The decision to reopen the embassy in Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital of Israel is a diplomatic win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and puts Paraguay in a small group of countries that have taken the move. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn't recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv. “Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is a body without a soul,” President Santiago Peña said in a speech to the Knesset. “So I say here today that without an embassy in Jerusalem, diplomatic relations with Israel do not have a real heart.” He said he hoped the move would inspire other countries to do the same. The embassy is set to open Thursday. Pena’s move was welcomed by Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, along with other Israeli leaders. “Tomorrow we will inaugurate together the embassy of Paraguay in our eternal capital, and that will happen not for the first time, but for the second time,” Netanyahu said. Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion. Israel reopened its embassy in September. MOSCOW — Russia said Wednesday it has maintained contacts with the new authorities in Syria. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are monitoring most closely what is happening in Syria.” “We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “This is necessary because our bases are located there, our diplomatic mission is located there and, of course, the issue related to ensuring the security of these facilities is extremely important and of primary significance.” Peskov wouldn’t give details of those contacts, saying only that Russia has contacted “those who are controlling the situation on the ground.” He wouldn’t give the number of Russian troops in Syria. Asked to comment about Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone on the border with Syria, Peskov called them destabilizing. “The strikes and actions in the Golan Heights area, in the buffer zone area, are unlikely to help stabilize the situation in an already destabilized Syria,” he said. Russia has granted political asylum to ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family after they fled rebels who seized Damascus over the weekend. TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the recent events in Syria, including the fall of its government, were part of a joint plan by the United States and Israel. “There should be no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the result of a joint American and Zionist plan," Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Wednesday that was broadcast on state TV. “We have evidence, and this evidence leaves no room for doubt.” The Supreme leader added: “A neighboring state of Syria has played a clear role in this matter, and it continues to do so. Everyone can see this.” Khamenei also rejected speculation by analysts who have said that Iran will be weakened by the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. “Those ignorant analysts are unaware of the meaning of resistance. They think that if resistance weakens, Islamic Iran will also weaken. But I say, with the help and power of God — by the will of Almighty Allah — Iran is powerful and it will become even more powerful," he said.
NEW YORK — In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office in January. “The first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said in remarks at Mar-a-Lago. “In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.” Tech companies and leaders have now poured millions into his inauguration fund, a sharp increase — in most cases — from past pledges to incoming presidents. But what does the tech industry expect to gain out of their renewed relationships with Trump? Clearing the way for AI development A clue to what the industry is looking for came just days before the election when Microsoft executives — who’ve largely tried to show a neutral or bipartisan stance — joined with a close Trump ally, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, to publish a blog post outlining their approach to artificial intelligence policy. “Regulation should be implemented only if its benefits outweigh its costs,” said the document signed by Andreessen, his business partner Ben Horowitz, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the company’s president, Brad Smith. They also urged the government to back off on any attempt to strengthen copyright laws that would make it harder for companies to use publicly available data to train their AI systems. And they said, “the government should examine its procurement practices to enable more startups to sell technology to the government.” Trump has pledged to rescind President Joe Biden’s sweeping AI executive order, which sought to protect people’s rights and safety without stifling innovation. He hasn’t specified what he would do in its place, but his campaign said AI development should be “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.” Easier energy for data centers Trump’s choice to head the Interior Department, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, has spoken openly about the need to boost electricity production to meet increased demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. “The AI battle affects everything from defense to healthcare to education to productivity as a country,′′ Burgum said on Nov. 15, referring to artificial intelligence. “And the AI that’s coming in the next 18 months is going to be revolutionary. So there’s just a sense of urgency and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration′′ to address it. Demand for data centers ballooned in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and local governments are competing for lucrative deals with big tech companies. But as data centers begin to consume more resources, some residents are pushing back against the world’s most powerful corporations over concerns about the economic, social and environmental health of their communities. Changing the antitrust discussion “Maybe Big Tech should buy a copy of ‘The Art of The Deal’ to figure out how to best negotiate with this administration,” suggested Paul Swanson, an antitrust attorney for the law firm Holland & Hart. “I won’t be surprised if they find ways to reach some accommodations and we end up seeing more negotiated resolutions and consent decrees.” Although federal regulators began cracking down on Google and Facebook during Trump’s first term as president — and flourished under Biden — most experts expect his second administration to ease up on antitrust enforcement and be more receptive to business mergers. Google may benefit from Trump’s return after he made comments on the campaign trail suggesting a breakup of the company isn’t in the U.S. national interest, after a judge declared its search engine an illegal monopoly. But recent nominations put forward by his transition team have favored those who have been critical of Big Tech companies, suggesting Google won’t be entirely off the hook. Fending off the EU Cook’s notoriously rocky relationship with the EU can be traced back to a 2016 ruling from Brussels in a tax case targeting Apple. Cook slammed the bloc’s order for Apple to pay back up to 13 billion euros ($13.7 billion) in Irish back taxes as “total political crap.” Trump, then in his first term as president, piled on, referring to the European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who was spearheading a campaign on special tax deals and a crackdown on Big Tech companies, as the “tax lady” who “really hates the U.S.” Brussels was eventually vindicated after the bloc’s top court rejected Apple’s appeal this year, though it didn’t stop Cook from calling Trump to complain, Trump recounted in a podcast in October. Trump hosted Cook for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly. Neither Apple nor the Trump transition team has commented on the nature of their discussions. Making amends? Altman, Amazon and Meta all pledged to donate $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund. During his first term, Trump criticized Amazon and railed against the political coverage at The Washington Post, which billionaire Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized some of Trump’s past rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract. More recently, Bezos has struck a more conciliatory tone. He recently said at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while also endorsing president-elect’s plans to cut regulations. The donation from Meta came just weeks after Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt. Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. And Altman, who is in a legal dispute with AI rival Elon Musk, has said he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence in the incoming administration. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging that the maker of ChatGPT betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits.
CARACAS (AP) — Six Venezuelan government opponents who have sheltered for months at the Argentine embassy in Caracas decried Sunday that local police and intelligence agents were stationed outside of it for hours. The move prompted the U.S. government to call it a serious violation of international law and Argentina’s Foreign Ministry to describe it as an act of harassment. Most of the opponents belong to the Vente Venezuela party led by former legislator María Corina Machado . It denounced what it called “a new siege by hooded officials” that began Saturday night and extended into Sunday. The incident occurred hours after Machado called for a massive mobilization on Dec. 1, prompting Venezuela’s minister of the interior to accuse the political leader of being part of a new conspiracy attempt against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Vente Venezuela said in a statement that the diplomatic headquarters remains without electricity and is surrounded by “regime vehicles” that are preventing traffic from circulating in the area. It said communication signals also were scrambled. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Saturday that the deployment of armed troops and the closing of streets in the vicinity “constitute a disturbance of security.”. It also called on the international community to condemn the incident, which the U.S. did. On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela posted on X that the U.S. “strongly condemns the acts of harassment against asylum seekers.” “The deployment of armed forces and blockades seriously violate international law,” it said. “We demand that the Venezuelan regime respect its international obligations, cease these intimidating actions and guarantee safe passage for asylum seekers.” Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been broken since 2019. The opposition members entered the embassy in March after the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office issued arrest warrants and accused them of promoting alleged acts of violence to destabilize the government. In August, Brazil accepted Argentina’s request to guard its embassy after the Venezuelan government ordered the expulsion of Argentine diplomatic personnel following statements by its president, Javier Milei, that he would not recognize “another fraud” in Venezuela after the controversial elections in Jul y. A month later, Venezuela revoked Brazil’s authorization to guard the embassy, alleging it had evidence of the use of the facilities “for the planning of terrorist activities and assassination attempts.” Brazil and Argentina have rejected those accusations.
Siriraj honours staff, local communityResidents of the inner-west are demanding that pollution filters be installed on the West Gate Tunnel’s enormous vents, which spew toxic truck fumes into the air near homes and sporting fields. Environmental Justice Australia lawyers have sent a letter on behalf of the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group urging the state’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to reconsider its decision to not require the fitting of pollution filters on the $10.1 billion tunnel’s twin vents. Glen Yates in front of the western-most vent under constuction. Credit: Justin McManus The two 50-metre tall concrete structures – at Whitehall Street and near Fogarty Avenue in Yarraville – will draw polluted air out of the four-kilometre tunnel and pump it into the atmosphere when the Transurban-operated toll road opens, scheduled by the end of 2025. Glen Yates lives with his wife and two children less than a kilometre from one of the vents. “I can see it at the end of my street. People think it’s a car park – if they knew they would be horrified,” he said. In 2017, the project’s government-appointed advisory committee recommended pollution filters be fitted on the vents during the construction because the area’s air quality was already poor and the project should “take every opportunity to improve [it]”. But then-planning minister Richard Wynne rejected this, saying he was not convinced the filters were justified or cost-effective. He instead supported retrofitting the vents “if warranted”. The EPA agreed and approved the works with a requirement that the vents be built to allow for future installation of pollution filters. Modelling for the project has shown that while some inner-west neighbourhoods are predicted to have better air quality, there will be occasional heightened levels of particulate matter – tiny pieces of dust, dirt, smoke or chemicals that can blow into people’s lungs. Environmental Justice Australia lawyer Elke Nicholson said the project would soon apply to the EPA for an operating licence for the tunnel. Nicholson argued that the application should prompt the EPA to conduct new community consultation on vent filtration because the Environment Protection Act has been strengthened since it first assessed the project. Under the updated act, the EPA must have a “preventative focus” and address harms to human health that may be cumulative and arise from a range of factors, which in the inner west includes existing heavy road traffic and nearby industrial activity. “If the EPA approves this without listening to the community, it would be a real failure to consider their voices and the fact that they are already overburdened with a significant amount of air pollution,” Nicholson said. “They’re impacted by air pollution to a degree no one else in the state is. People have been campaigning for decades and seeing no genuine changes.” An aerial shot of the West Gate Tunnel ventilation structure near Fogarty Avenue in the distance. Credit: Justin McManus EPA general counsel Greg Elms said extensive public consultation had already been conducted, but any operating licence application would be rigorously assessed according to the newest science and legislation. Yates – a member of the truck action group – lives near the Fogarty Avenue vent, which is about 200 metres from sporting fields, homes and a new residential development, Bradmill Estate. He said he had been diagnosed with asthma two years ago. More than 9000 trucks are expected to travel through the tunnel each day, and Yates said he worried about the effects of unfiltered exhaust emissions collecting in just two spots. The number of trucks using the tunnel will also surge. The Port of Melbourne has forecast container volumes will more than double over the next 30 years. Climate change is also expected to increase the frequency of “inversion layers” that trap airborne pollution at ground level. “As much as they’re saying it’s great from a traffic flow perspective, as far as extreme concentration of exhaust goes, Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville cop the full brunt,” Yates said. Martin Wurt, the truck action group’s president, said the cost of filters would be minor compared with the project’s budget, which has already blown out by $3.8 billion. But it would be difficult to add later because doing so could require Transurban to shut down the tunnel for installation, he said. “If you’re really committed to doing something for the health of the inner west, you would be putting filtration in now, and EPA should be screaming out for this,” Wurt said. Maribyrnong City Council declared a health emergency in its municipality in 2023 because of the impacts of air and noise pollution from heavy trucks using local roads. One study of children in Yarraville, published in Atmosphere in July, found that truck emissions likely made a substantial contribution to childhood asthma. “If existing statistics on our poor health here aren’t enough for a trigger for filtration, I can’t imagine what ever would be,” Wurt said. Air pollution filters have been installed on tunnels in Norway, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Austria, Italy, Germany, South Korea and Spain. However, a spokesman for Transport Minister Danny Pearson said filtration technology was in its infancy and energy intensive. The spokesman said vents would push exhaust high into the air to be dispersed safely, and air quality would be monitored daily. “The new tunnels will use effective and proven ventilation technology and are being built to strict environmental standards,” he said. A Transurban spokesperson said the ventilation system had been designed to meet stringent international standards, and that it regularly published air-quality data for its road tunnels. The West Gate Tunnel’s planning process attracted more than 500 submissions, 460 of which were opposed to the project, citing concerns including air quality and health impacts. The toll road – which includes 6.8 kilometres of tunnels and 9.2 kilometres of elevated roads and flyovers – is intended to provide an alternative river crossing to the West Gate Bridge, improve access to the Port of Melbourne and remove trucks from local streets in the inner west. Transurban successfully pitched the project to the newly elected Labor state government in 2015, and is paying $6.1 billion of its construction costs in exchange for operating tolls on the new road, along with a lucrative 10-year extension to its CityLink contract.
England [UK], December 20 (ANI): Artificial intelligence can provide important insights into how complex chemical mixes in rivers affect aquatic life, paving the path for more effective environmental protection. A novel methodology developed by academics at the University of Birmingham shows how advanced artificial intelligence (AI) approaches can assist in discovering potentially dangerous chemical chemicals in rivers by monitoring their impacts on small water fleas (Daphnia). The team worked with scientists at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), in China, and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), in Germany, to analyse water samples from the Chaobai River system near Beijing. This river system receives chemical pollutants from a number of different sources, including agricultural, domestic and industrial. Professor John Colbourne is the director of the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Environmental Research and Justice and one of the senior authors on the paper. He expressed optimism that, by building upon these early findings, such technology can one day be deployed to routinely monitor water for toxic substances that would otherwise be undetected. He said: “There is a vast array of chemicals in the environment. Water safety cannot be assessed one substance at a time. Now we have the means to monitor the totality of chemicals in sampled water from the environment to uncover what unknown substances act together to produce toxicity to animals, including humans.” The results, published in Environmental Science and Technology, reveal that certain mixtures of chemicals can work together to affect important biological processes in aquatic organisms, which are measured by their genes. The combinations of these chemicals create environmental hazards that are potentially greater than when chemicals are present individually. The research team used water fleas (Daphnia) as test organisms in the study because these tiny crustaceans are highly sensitive to water quality changes and share many genes with other species, making them excellent indicators of potential environmental hazards. “Our innovative approach leverages Daphnia as the sentinel species to uncover potential toxic substances in the environment,” explains Dr Xiaojing Li, of the University of Birmingham (UoB) and the lead author of this study. “By using AI methods, we can identify which subsets of chemicals might be particularly harmful to aquatic life, even at low concentrations that wouldn’t normally raise concerns.” Dr Jiarui Zhou, also at the University of Birmingham and co-first author of the paper, who led the development of the AI algorithms, said: “Our approach demonstrates how advanced computational methods can help solve pressing environmental challenges. By analysing vast amounts of biological and chemical data simultaneously, we can better understand and predict environmental risks.” Professor Luisa Orsini, another senior author of the study, added: “The study’s key innovation lies in our data-driven, unbiased approach to uncovering how environmentally relevant concentrations of chemical mixtures can cause harm. This challenges conventional ecotoxicology and paves the way to regulatory adoption of the sentinel species Daphnia, alongside new approach methodologies.” Dr Timothy Williams of the University of Birmingham and co-author of the paper also noted that: “Typically, aquatic toxicology studies either use a high concentration of an individual chemical to determine detailed biological responses or only determine apical effects like mortality and altered reproduction after exposure to an environmental sample. However, this study breaks new ground by allowing us to identify key classes of chemicals that affect living organisms within a genuine environmental mixture at relatively low concentration while simultaneously characterising the biomolecular changes elicited.” (ANI) This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content. var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.length; i++) {ytv[i].src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );