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Macao: EU report highlights growing emphasis on national security that risks undermining fundamental freedoms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

The European Commission and the High Representative have adopted their 23rd annual report to the European Parliament and the Council on political and economic developments in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR). This report covers developments in 2022.The report shows a growing focus on national security that bears the risk of undermining fundamental freedoms in Macao and eroding the ‘one country, two systems' principle and Macao's high degree of autonomy.On 15 December, the Legislative Assembly passed a bill to amend the 2009 national security law. The expressed aim of the bill is to enable the law to safeguard national security to the same extent as the laws of mainland China and of Hong Kong. The amended law expands the scope of the existing offences to include non-violent actions under subversion, and further widens the definition of sedition. The scope of the charge of collusion has been broadened to include any organisation, association, and individual outside of Mac...

A’s slugger hits walk-off homer, making sure he could attend Zach Bryan’s concert. Then he went on stage.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

OAKLAND — Brent Rooker hit a two-run home run off Dylan Coleman in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Oakland Athletics a 6-4 win over the Kansas City Royals at the Coliseum.And it might have only been the second coolest thing Rooker did Monday night.After the A’s victory, Rooker made the short walk over to the Oakland Arena to see Zach Bryan perform in concert. But not only did the Rooker see the show, he joined Bryan on stage — wearing his Kelly green A’s jersey — and began to sing alongside the 2022 Grammy Award nominee.“I don’t even know what happened,” Bryan wrote in an Instagram story late Monday night. “@zachlanebryan is the absolute man. Burned the house down as always.”Bryan also acknowledged Rooker’s dual talents on Instagram, saying, “Man belted a homer then came and BELTED WITH US.”Great night for Brent Rooker. Slugs his second walk-off homer of the season and gets to go on stage for Za...

Phoenix faces Los Angeles, seeks to end 3-game slide

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

Phoenix Mercury (9-23, 2-13 Western Conference) at Los Angeles Sparks (13-18, 7-10 Western Conference)Los Angeles; Wednesday, 10 p.m. EDTBOTTOM LINE: Phoenix is looking to break its three-game skid with a win against Los Angeles.The Sparks’ record in Western Conference play is 7-10. Los Angeles ranks second in the Western Conference at limiting opponent scoring, allowing 81.0 points while holding opponents to 45.6% shooting.The Mercury have gone 2-13 against Western Conference opponents. Phoenix ranks third in the Western Conference with 19.3 assists per game led by Sug Sutton averaging 4.4.The teams square off for the fourth time this season. The Mercury won the last matchup 78-72 on July 9. Brittney Griner scored 29 points to help lead the Mercury to the win.TOP PERFORMERS: Dearica Hamby is averaging 8.9 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Sparks. Nneka Ogwumike is averaging 19.5 points over the last 10 games for Los Angeles.Griner is averaging 17.9 points, seven rebounds and 1....

Brutal beating caught on camera: Navy veteran describes attack in Miami Beach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

Newly released body camera footage captured the moments a veteran became the victim of a brutal beach beating. Now, he is describing exactly what happened to him. The police were at the scene at a CVS minutes after the vicious, unprovoked, sudden attack of a 70-year-old Navy veteran in Miami Beach.“You tell us what happened,” an officer said.The body camera footage obtained exclusively by 7News showed the moments after the victim was beaten and bloodied at a Lincoln Road bus stop in late June.His face was soaked in blood while waiting inside the CVS where he was first taken as he waited for help.He told officers about the attack. “This is what happened, I’m waiting over here at the bus stop,” the victim said. “I go to the VA. I volunteer there. I am also a veteran.”The veteran was on his way to help fellow vets at the VA Hospital until his brutal encounter.“He comes by, and he’s on his bike, he gets off his bike, walks around,...

Pakistan mounts efforts to rescue 6 children and 2 men trapped in a chairlift

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani emergency workers launched a rescue operation to try and save six children and two men trapped in a chairlift after one of its cables snapped off on Tuesday, leaving it dangling high above ground in the country’s northwest. The chairlift was installed across a river canyon, connecting villages in Battagram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It was used by local villagers to cross the river and shorten the distance to nearby schools, government offices and other businesses. Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the disaster management authority, said the chairlift had been dangling 350 meters (1,150 feet) above ground for six hours before a helicopter was dispatched to the site to try and pluck the eight out of the chairlift. Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar ordered the helicopter rescue, Khan said. Many villagers in Pakistan’s mountainous regions use such chairlifts to shorten distances and travel and an unspecifie...

Ex-Prime Minister Thaksin enters prison in Thailand, as his allies attempt to form a government

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Parliament on Tuesday began voting in a second attempt to choose a prime minister, hours after ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after years of self-imposed exile and entered prison to begin serving an eight-year sentence.The Thaksin-linked Pheu Thai Party proposed former property developer Srettha Thavisin as the head of an 11-party coalition that includes two parties allied with its former military adversaries, holding 314 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives.Srettha also needs support from the non-elected Senate, appointed by a previous military government. Both houses of Parliament vote together for prime minister under a military-implemented constitution, and senators, like the army, see themselves as guardians of traditional conservative royalist values. Srettha is not a member of parliament and does not appear to be present for the vote.Pheu Thai is the latest in a string of parties formed by Thaksin or his allies,...

Russia’s Putin stays away over arrest warrant as leaders of emerging economies meet in South Africa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will be notably absent when Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economie s start a three-day summit in South Africa on Tuesday.The bloc, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is holding its first in-person meeting since before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Putin will participate via video call after his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for him in March over the abduction of children from Ukraine.Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend in person as the bloc — home to 40% of the world’s population and responsible for more than 30% of global economic output — mulls a possible expansion.That will top the agenda at Wednesday’s main summit meeting in Johannesburg’s financial distri...

Danish defense minister swaps places with economy minister days after donation of F-16s to Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The defense and economy ministers in Denmark’s centrist government swapped places Tuesday, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Danish lawmakers for providing Kyiv with F-16 warplanes.Jakob Ellemann-Jensen who is also deputy prime minister in Denmark’s three-party coalition and head of the Liberal Party, became economy minister. Troels Lund Poulsen who acted as defense minister while Ellemann-Jensen was on a five-month leave of absence for health reasons, now takes over full-time at the defense ministry.Ellemann-Jensen told a news conference that he took the decision to swap places after returning to office Aug. 1 but only announced it Tuesday following the Zelenskyy visit.Lund Poulsen was considered the architect behind the donation of the F-16 to Ukraine and was at helm in May, when Denmark announced it will invest some 143 billion kroner ($21 billion) in the country’s defense over the next decade.The Netherlands and Denmark ...

In the news today: Federal cabinet retreat to hear from housing experts today

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Cabinet set to hear from housing experts as Charlottetown retreat continuesThe federal cabinet today is expected to discuss whether to revisit the existing national housing strategy and possibly hold a national housing summit with other levels of government and the private sector in a bid to solve the growing housing crisis across the country.The discussions underway at the cabinet retreat in Charlottetown come as the Liberals look ahead to the fall sitting of Parliament where they plan to make housing the central focus of their efforts.Two housing experts who helped co-author a recent report on the federal government’s role in solving the housing crisis are set to present their findings to the cabinet later today.The report delivered a week ago warns that “Canada’s housing crisis is worsening dramatically” in large part because of an &#...

New Mexico State preaches anti-hazing message as student-athletes return for fall season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:17 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Top administrators at New Mexico State University wanted to find just the right wording to announce that they were pulling the plug on the men’s basketball season following reports of alleged hazing involving team members. It was a busy afternoon in February — Super Bowl Sunday, in fact — as university officials traded emails and made suggestions before dropping the bombshell that the season was finished. They wanted the message to address the safety of students as well as the integrity of the university. And time was of the essence.“We don’t want our student athletes to hear this via media,” wrote Ann Goodman, the dean of students.A review of hundreds of emails obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request provides insight into the damage control undertaken by New Mexico State University after news broke about the hazing allegations. It capped an already difficult season that had been marred by a deadly shooting on a rival campus a...