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Americans released by Iran arrive home, tearfully embrace their loved ones and declare: ‘Freedom!’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans detained for years in Iran arrived home Tuesday, tearfully hugged their loved ones and declared “Freedom!” after being let go as part of a politically risky deal that saw President Joe Biden agree to the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets.The prisoners landed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with clapping and cheers heard in the predawn hours. Siamak Namazi, the first off the jet, paused for a moment, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before leaving the plane. Loved ones, some holding small American flags, enveloped them in hugs and exchanged greetings in English and Farsi, the main language of Iran.“The nightmare is finally over,” Namazi’s brother, Babak, said at the airport.“We haven’t had this moment is over eight years,” he added, his arm around his brother and his formerly detained father, Baquer, who had been earlier released by Iran. “It’s unbelievable.”The former prisoners later posed for a group photograph with their families, c...

Far from home, Ukrainian designers showcase fashion that was created amid air raid sirens

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

LONDON (AP) — For Ksenia Schnaider and her fellow Ukrainian fashion designers, the show must go on despite the war in their country — or precisely because of it. For much of the past year, Schnaider and her team of seamstresses toiled away in their Kyiv studio, crafting her new collection of designer denim and luxury daywear even as air raid sirens, drone attacks and power cuts took over their lives and made production almost impossible to continue.Schnaider, 39, fled Ukraine with her husband and young daughter when Russia invaded her country in 2022. They found a temporary home with a British family in a peaceful corner of southern England. But she hasn’t put down the fashion business she founded 12 years ago, dividing her time between the U.K. and Kyiv, where all her garments are still being made against the odds.“My team needs this sense of normality — they told me they want to go to work and have something to do, to support each other, rather than staying home hiding,” she added...

Trial of man accused in London attack set to hear more evidence today

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

Jurors at the trial of a man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family in Ontario are set to hear more evidence today.Nathaniel Veltman is accused of deliberately hitting five members of the Afzaal family with his truck while they were out for a walk in London, Ont.Prosecutors have alleged his actions in June 2021 amount to an act of terrorism and have argued he was motivated by white nationalist beliefs.Veltman, 22, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.Jurors watched a video of Veltman on Monday telling a detective he had been motivated by white nationalist beliefs that he had kept private in order to avoid detection by authorities.He was also seen telling the detective that his attack was politically motivated and an act of terrorism.Salman Afzaal, 46, his 44-year-old wife Madiha Salman, their 15-year-old daughter Yumna and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal, were killed in the attack. The couple’s n...

Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appears at a Moscow court to appeal his arrest

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained on espionage charges, appeared in a Moscow court Tuesday to appeal his arrest. The 31-year-old United States citizen was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia in late March. He and his employer deny the allegations, and the U.S. government declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage charges.Gershkovich is the first American reporter to face espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.The Associated Press

Spain players arrive at camp after Hermoso accuses federation of threatening World Cup winners

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Some of Spain’s World Cup-winning players started reporting to training camp on Tuesday despite not wanting to be called up for the national team while fighting for changes in the soccer federation.Local media showed some of the players arriving at the hotel where the team will stay in Madrid, with their arrival coming a day after new coach Montse Tomé ignored their decision not to play until their demands for reform at the federation were met.The players had said in a statement on Monday that they were caught by surprise by the call-up and did not plan to end their boycott, but those who don’t show up risk breaking a Spanish sports law that requires athletes to answer the call of national teams unless there are circumstances that impede them from playing, such as an injury.It was the latest embarrassing chapter in Spanish soccer in a crisis ignited by former federation president Luis Rubiales kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips after Spain won the Wom...

Kremlin says Russia and China must edge closer to counter Western efforts to contain them

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A senior Kremlin official on Tuesday called for closer policy coordination between Moscow and Beijing to counter what he described as Western efforts to contain them as he hosted China’s top diplomat for security talks.Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that Moscow “seeks progressive development and strengthening of the Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation.”“Amid the campaign unleashed by the collective West that is aimed at the double containment of Russia and China, it’s particularly important to further deepen Russian-Chinese coordination and interaction on the inetrnational arena,” Patrushev said.He noted that Putin is set to hold “substantive” talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during next month’s trip to Beijing to attend a summit of the Chinese Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.Patrushev, a lo...

Russian drone attack on a city in western Ukraine sparks an inferno at a warehouse and kills 1

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a massive drone attack on the western city of Lviv early Tuesday, damaging a warehouse facility in a fiery blaze and killing one man, Ukrainian authorities said.Ukraine intercepted most of the 30 Shahed drones overnight, the Air Force said. But drones that got through air defense systems sparked an inferno at the industrial storage facility that was not used for military purposes, Gov. Maksym Kozytsky said. An artillery strike in Kherson in the south struck a bus, killing a police sergeant and wounding two men, said Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs. That strike also set a warehouse on fire. The developments in the war front came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council before going to Washington on Thursday to meet with lawmakers and President Joe Biden.Zelenskyy has continued to drum up funding and support for new weapons as the counteroffensiv...

Hunter Biden has gone on the offensive against Republicans. That could be tricky for the president

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden has gone on the offensive against his Republican critics, arguing in a new lawsuit that although he is the son of the president of the United States, he shouldn’t be treated differently than any other American.The lawsuit against the IRS is only the latest in a series of counterpunches by the president’s son. But while Hunter Biden’s lawyers might think that an aggressive approach is the best legal strategy for Biden the son, that might not be what’s best for Biden the father as he seeks reelection and tries to keep the public focused on his policy achievements. The president has had little to say about his son’s legal woes — which now include a felony indictment — beyond that Hunter did nothing wrong and he loves his son. The White House strategy has been to keep the elder Biden head-down and focused on governing, reasoning that that’s what voters will prioritize, while working to keep Hunter’s troubles at arm’s dis...

Feist, Daniel Caesar mong artists up for Polaris prize

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

TORONTO — Ten Canadian musicians and bands will compete for the Polaris Music Prize tonight.The $50,000 award for the year’s best Canadian album will be handed out during a concert event held at Toronto’s Massey Hall.Among the contenders is Calgary-raised pop singer-songwriter Leslie Feist, Toronto R&B singer Daniel Caesar and Oji-Cree alternative soul artist Aysanabee.Other nominees include Haitian-Canadian artist Gayance, Winnipeg’s Begonia and Nigerian-Canadian Debby Friday.Rounding out the list is British Columbia native Dan Mangan, Toronto rock band the Sadies, B.C. hip hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids and Prince Edward Island indie pop band Alvvays.The Polaris prize names the best Canadian album of the previous year — irrespective of genre or sales — as chosen by a group of journalists, broadcasters and music bloggers.Last year, the Polaris went to Congolese-Canadian Pierre Kwenders for his third album “Jose Louis and the Paradox Of Love.”This yea...

Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh activist whose killing has divided Canada and India?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:20:36 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate whose killing two months ago is at the center of a widening breach between India and Canada, was called a human rights activist by Sikh organizations and a terrorist by India’s government.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that his government was investigating “credible allegations that agents of the Indian state were linked to the killing of a Canadian citizen” after Nijjar was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia. India denied any role in the killing, calling the allegations absurd. Nijjar was a prominent member of a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, and at the time of his death was organizing an unofficial referendum among the Sikh diaspora with the organization Sikhs For Justice.He also owned a plumbing business and served as president of a local Sikh temple or gurdwara.Nijjar was a wanted ...