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Taliban slam ‘baseless and biased’ UN report suggesting rifts and conflict within their ranks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban condemned on Sunday a “baseless and biased” report from the U.N. Security Council highlighting rifts within the group’s ranks.The last seven months have seen a greater shift of power from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and the base of the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.A report — issued earlier in June — by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said that the Taliban governance structures remain “highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive” toward all forms of opposition. It also said Kandahar’s return as the seat of power — like it was during the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s — circumvents senior Taliban ministers in Kabul, the center of the current government, because of the way decisions are made.Key figures, such as the Taliban’s main spokesman, have set up offices in the south of Kandahar. Monumental decrees such as tho...

Smokestack implosion at defunct Detroit trash incinerator ends decades of stink

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — In a boom, a low rumble and a vibrating crash, the looming smokestack of a shuttered trash incinerator whose stench sickened and angered Detroit residents for decades came down in a controlled implosion Sunday morning.Reducing the smokestack to rubble is almost the final phase in the facility’s yearlong demolition, which should be completed by July, according to the city.The facility has stood a few miles northeast of downtown Detroit. Before closing in 2021, fumes and the rank odor of burning trash could be smelled for miles, but were strongest for residents of nearby streets, raising concerns about pollution and the impact on residents’ health.The approximately 330-foot-tall (100-meter-tall) incinerator operated by Detroit Renewable Energy opened in 1989. Up to 5,000 tons (4,535 metric tons) of trash were burned there per day.“The presence of this incinerator has been a real pain point for this community because it was another example of a health hazard ...

Left-leaning Mexico seeks closer Canada ties in labour and business amid mining spat

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government is taking a mixed approach to Mexico charting its own path to economic growth, as a desire for more trade and better labour rights bumps up against mining reform and agriculture regulations that have riled Canadian firms.Ahead of a visit this week of senior Mexican officials, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan was in Mexico this month taking stock of the country’s growing movement to unionize, which has been undergoing major reforms with some Canadian help.“What the Mexican government is doing is incredible,” O’Regan said in a recent interview. “I can’t imagine a society moving faster than they are.”The changes stem from the replacement for NAFTA, officially known as the Canada United States Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA, which was signed during the Trump administration in 2018.CUSMA calls for Mexico to improve the rights of labour unions and collective bargaining, in part to counteract pressure to keep U.S. sa...

Long lasting heat wave continues with no relief in sight

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Your Sunday starts with low clouds and fog before skies turn mostly sunny. Highs jump back up to 100º for the second day this year.Another low storm chance exists for Sunday and Monday, which will generally be hot and dry days. Rain chances on those days also favor northern areas with a low severe weather risk too.A ridge of high pressure will build further over the region next week, leading to dangerous levels of heat and humidity, and even several daily record high temperatures.Highs next 7 daysOur best chance for record breaking highs will be Thursday and Friday. Hydrate up! "The future is smoky": Northeast U.S. air quality problems linked to climate change INVESTIGATION: LCRA didn't plan for climate change until KXAN investigation 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 Weather teamFollow the KXAN First Warning Weather team on F...

Readers and writers: Three new books from Minnesota authors to check out this week

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

Here’s a new collection from a respected poet, the end of a trilogy and a family-centered mystery, all from Minnesota writers launching their books this week.“When I Was Young and Old”: by Freya Manfred (Nodin Press, $17)Minnesotan Freya Manfred will celebrate publication of her 10th poetry collection, “When I was Young and Old,” June 15, 2023, at University of Minnesota’s Elmer L. Andersen Library. (Courtesy of the author)I ask my heart why it trembles, but there’s no reply.An invisible wall divides me from myself,and the flow of love that answers love has slowed.I need to trust my heart, but I quake with fearwhen I remember the pain that love can cause. —  From the poem I Ask My Heart in “When I Was Young and Old”Freya Manfred’s 10th book of poetry is perfectly named, as she looks to the past with memories of her grandmother; her parents, Maryanna and Fred Manfred; and her brother, as well as to the present, where s...

Mustaches are back, baby! What yours says about you

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

About six months ago, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, a screenwriter in Los Angeles, was shaving his beard when he reached the region between his nose and his upper lip and thought, “What if I just stopped?”“I was self-conscious, at first, because I hadn’t ever worn just a mustache,” he said. But after confirming that his wife didn’t hate it, and realizing how commonplace they had become in his Echo Park neighborhood, he embraced the look. “I turned 40 this year, and I have two young kids, and it makes me feel more like a dad, but a fun dad,” he said.He is scarcely alone. The mustache, capable of evoking everything from rugged masculinity to whimsical irony to earnest fatherly cheer, is enjoying one of its periodic renaissances.“I’ll be on the subway sometime, and I’ll look around and five other people in a 10-foot radius will have mustaches,” said Jimmy Brewer, 27, an actor in New York, who grew out his mustache while on vacation seven months ago. He then landed a part in the ensemble of the...

Letters: Remember what was on the roads when many Summit mansions were built

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

Blame, blame, blameYour columnist suggests we blame the “unelected bureaucrats” for the bike path he doesn’t like.No, wait. It is the elected City Council that overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bike path he doesn’t like.No, wait. It is the “hothouse,” profligate, elected Democrats in the legislature who are to blame. Or blame Gov. Walz ,who was re-elected last fall with almost 8 percentage points more votes than his Republican challenger.As one who regularly bicycles on Summit Avenue, I don’t care if the bike path is placed above the street, as many newer paths are, or if it is in the street. But it is worthwhile, if one really cares about “history,” to recall that a good deal of the “magnificent architecture” on Summit was built when carriages and bicycles, not cars, traveled the street.On the other hand if one just wants to rant, don’t forget Mayor Carter. He must be to blame too.Greg Weyandt, Falcon Heights Not a ‘gateway drug’I have to respond to the ill-info...

Sofi Hersher Andorsky: Faith-based communities have a role to play in strengthening democracy

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

There is an old joke about making decisions in the Jewish community: three people, 10 opinions. And that is how it is inside houses of worship, schools, and faith institutions across America, as they routinely meld the diverse opinions as they do the work of negotiating, compromising, forging consensus, and fostering a sense of purpose. The same is true of other faith-based spaces; connected by a shared identity and a commitment to a shared future, diverse people make meaning, celebrate, plan, and make decisions together. The outcomes don’t always satisfy everyone, but a commitment to the overall vision — and to each other — keeps the community together.Indeed, at a time when democratic norms and institutions in the United States are under attack, and amidst a rise in extremism that has fueled violence against minority faith communities nationwide, the faith-based community has often shown how regular community engagement can sustain civic connections, connections ...

Minnesota wolves eating fish wasn’t a fluke, researchers say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

KABETOGAMA LAKE, Minn. — When researchers at the Voyageurs Wolf Project first captured video of wolves catching and eating fish out of a small stream back in 2017, they thought it was probably a unique occurrence.Now, upon further research, the biologists have found that many wolves across their northern Minnesota range likely target and catch fish in the spring — a good source of protein at just the right time of year when other food is not abundant.In a study published in the May issue of the journal Royal Society Open, the wolf project scientists found wolves returning to their favorite fishing holes to catch fish for five straight years, and one more year after the report was finished.“After observing males and females, yearlings and adults, lone wolves and pack members fish, we think that wolves hunt spawning fish across similar boreal ecosystems, and they likely have been doing it for quite a while. We don’t think it is a new behavior,” said Dani Freund, lead author of the rep...

St. Paul-based organization channels $50 million toward generational wealth building in Black communities. How will it work?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:24 GMT

The Bush Foundation is sending $50 million into a wealth-building program run by Nexus Community Partners directed at American descendants of chattel slavery residing in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.The St. Paul-based organization announced last week that the grant will be used to fund at least 800 applicants with $50,000 during the next eight years.The Bush Foundation is funding this project with money from social impact bonds they issued in 2020.“Essentially, that means we took on debt to put more money into the region during unprecedented times. We didn’t want to reduce our regular grant-making to create these funds,” said communications director Kari Ruth.Nexus President Repa Mekha (Courtesy of Nexus Community Partners).All residents age 14 and up who can prove they’re descendants of the Atlantic slave trade are eligible for grants — there is no income cap or minimum and both individuals and group applicants will be considered. Applications op...