AP-Newswatch

AP-Newswatch

AP-Summary Brief News

February 1, 2024

The European Union overcame Hungary veto’s threat to seal a 50 billion-euro aid package for Ukraine

BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union official says the 27 EU countries have sealed a deal to provide Ukraine with a new 50 billion-euro support package despite weeks of threats from Hungary to veto the move. The agreement announced by European Council President Charles Michel on financial aid for Ukraine’s war-ravaged economy was reached in the first hour of a summit in Brussels on Thursday. That Hungary so quickly lifted its veto came as a surprise. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked the package’s adoption in December and had threatened to do the same this week. Ukraine’s economy desperately needs propping up nearly two years into the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion. Some leaders accused Orbán of blackmail and playing political games.

Farmers on tractors create chaos outside an EU summit to protest rising costs and bureaucracy

BRUSSELS (AP) — Farmers in convoys of tractors are creating chaos outside the European Union’s headquarters, pelting police with firecrackers, eggs and beer bottles as they demand leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy. With thick smoke from burning bales of hay hanging over parts of the Belgian capital, security forces used water cannons to douse fires and keep a farmer from felling a tree on the steps of the European Parliament. Thursday’s are the culmination of weeks of protests around the bloc. Farmers say it’s becoming harder than ever to make a decent living. Farmers are a key electoral group and leaders have scrambled to respond to their demands ahead of EU parliamentary elections in June.

Israel and Lebanon are prepping for a war neither wants, but many fear it’s becoming inevitable

BEIRUT (AP) — The prospect of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia terrifies people on both sides of the border, but some see it as an inevitable fallout from Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Such a war could be the most destructive either side has ever experienced. Israel and Hezbollah each have lessons from their last war, in 2006. The monthlong conflict ended in a draw. Both countries also have had four months to prepare for another war, even as the U.S. tries to prevent a widening of the conflict. Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that an Israel-Hezbollah war “would be a total disaster.” That came amid a flurry of shuttle diplomacy by the U.S. and Europe.

US blames group of Iran-backed militias for deadly drone attack in Jordan as it weighs reprisals

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the group. The Sunday drone attack on a military base in Jordan killed the three troops and injured at least 40 others. Kirby said Wednesday that President Joe Biden will continue to weigh response options to the attack but “the first thing you see won’t be the last thing.”

Republican lawsuits challenge mail ballot deadlines. Could they upend voting across the country?

Republicans are challenging extended mail ballot deadlines in at least two states in a move that could have severe implications for mail voting nationwide ahead of this year’s presidential election. A lawsuit filed last week in Mississippi follows a similar one last year in North Dakota, both brought in heavily Republican states before conservative federal courts. Democratic and voting rights groups are concerned about the potential impact beyond those two states if a judge rules that deadlines for receiving mailed ballots that stretch past Election Day violate federal law. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said the group hopes to obtain a judicial precedent before November’s presidential election.

Biden will celebrate his UAW endorsement in Detroit, where Arab American anger is boiling over Gaza

DETROIT (AP) — President Joe Biden is planning to celebrate his recent endorsement by the United Auto Workers union during a visit to Michigan. But his visit on Thursday to the critical battleground state with the nation’s highest density of Arab Americans threatens to be overshadowed by growing anger over U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Biden’s trip to the Detroit area will include meetings with UAW workers just days after the union offered its endorsement. However, the Democratic president’s Michigan schedule does not include any meetings with Arab Americans, adding to increasing frustration within a key voting bloc over his full-throated support of Israel in its war with Hamas.

UK judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit over dossier containing ‘shocking and scandalous claims’

LONDON (AP) — A judge in London has thrown out a lawsuit by former U.S. President Donald Trump accusing a former British spy of making “shocking and scandalous claims” that were false and harmed his reputation. Judge Karen Steyn said the defendant was entitled to summary judgment and the case should not go to trial. Trump sued Orbis Business Intelligence, the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumors and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated. The former president sought damages from Orbis for allegedly violating British data protection laws. The firm sought to have the case thrown out.

Secret US spying program targeted top Venezuelan officials, flouting international law

MIAMI (AP) — A secret memo obtained by The Associated Press details a covert operation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that sent undercover operatives into Venezuela to surreptitiously record and build drug-trafficking cases against the country’s leadership – a plan the U.S. acknowledged from the start was arguably a violation of international law. The 2018 memo outlines “Operation Money Badger,” a yearslong investigation that authorities said targeted dozens of people, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The revelation comes at a fraught moment in US-Venezuela relations and offers a rare window into the lengths the DEA was willing to go in a country that banned U.S. drug agents nearly two decades ago.

Mark Zuckerberg’s long apology tour: A brief history

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Mark Zuckerberg has accumulated a long history of public apologies, often issued in the wake of crisis or when Facebook users rose up against unannounced — and frequently unappreciated — changes in its service. It’s a history that stands in sharp contrast to most of his peers in technology, who generally prefer not to speak publicly outside of carefully stage-managed product presentations. But it’s also true that Facebook has simply had a lot to apologize for. Zuckerberg was back in damage control mode on Wednesday when he apologized to the parents of children exploited, bullied or driven to self harm via social media.

How Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce became the focus of baseless political conspiracy theories

Superstar Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, have become the focus of a raft of false claims and political conspiracy theories on social media this week as the team advances to the Super Bowl on Feb. 11. Baseless posts range from allegations that Swift has played a part in Pentagon psychological operations to the idea that she and Kelce, a two-time Super Bowl champion, are key assets in a secret plot to help President Joe Biden get reelected in 2024, and that the Chiefs’ success was rigged as part of the plan.

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February 1, 2024
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February 1, 2024