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Venice faces possible UNESCO downgrade as it struggles to manage mass tourism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

VENICE, Italy (AP) — A scowling gondoliere ferrying sightseers 10 at a time across the mouth of Venice’s Grand Canal scolds passengers to sit still and frets over being shorted the bargain 2-euro fare.The brief journey perched along the sides of a packed gondola is a far cry from romantic scenes of gondolieres serenading couples as they ply Venice’s picturesque canals but is emblematic of the city’s plunge into mass tourism.The storied and fragile lagoon city is not alone in its struggle to manage an onslaught of tourists in the low-cost flight era. But the stakes are particularly high this week as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decides whether to add Venice to its list of endangered world sites. A decision could come as early as Thursday. A declassification would appear an indictment of the city’s management of tourism, after it escaped a downgrade two years ago when the Rome government enacted a ban on cruise ships off St. Mark’s Square and in the Giudecca canal. ...

UK police pay damages and express regret to protesters arrested at London vigil for murdered woman

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British police have paid damages to two protesters who were arrested while attending a vigil for a woman murdered by a serving police officer. Thursday’s announcement comes as the London force tries to rebuild trust after a series of incidents that exposed racism and sexism within its ranks.Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid were detained at the March 2021 protest vigil in London, which police said violated pandemic lockdown rules in place at the time.The gathering was called after Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old London woman, was abducted and murdered by an off-duty Metropolitan Police officer as she walked home at night.The crime shocked the country, angered many women and raised questions about a police force that unknowingly harbored a murderer in its ranks. Police officer Wayne Couzens later pleaded guilty to Everard’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.A planned vigil was canceled after police told organizers it would violate coronavirus restrictions, ...

Spain records its third hottest summer since records began as a drought drags on

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spain this year recorded its third hottest summer since official records began 62 years ago, authorities said Thursday, with temperatures peaking at 46.8 C (116 F) as the country’s severe drought dragged on.The average summer temperature was 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.34 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, the Spanish weather agency AEMET said.The World Meteorological Organization said last week that last month wasn’t only the world’s hottest August scientists ever recorded by far. It was also the second hottest month measured after July 2023.Since 1961, mainland Spain’s average temperature has risen 1.6 degrees C (2.88 degrees F), according to AEMET.Spain’s two hottest summers were in 2022 and 2003.This year’s January-August period in Spain equaled the same periods in 2022 and 2020 as the country’s hottest ever recorded over those months, AEMET said.At the same time, this summer was the rainiest since the turn of the century, AEMET said, though most of Spa...

Video shows fists flying during rush hour wrestling match on Toronto highway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

Toronto traffic is often frustrating enough to bring on bouts of road rage, but new video making the rounds on social media appears to show two men taking their exasperation to an extreme level.The footage, captured by motorists from multiples angles, shows two men engaged in a wrestling match in live lanes of Highway 401 during evening rush hour traffic.A man who recorded the incident tells CityNews it happened around 5 p.m. on Tuesday in the westbound lanes of the highway near Leslie Street.Another View: Road Rage Turns Into Wrestling Match On Hwy401. Via: Insta/areacode416ix .#HWY401 #ONHwys #ONpoli #RoadRage #fight #Ontario #Toronto #TrafficAlert #trucking #TruckDriver #Transportation #RoadSafety pic.twitter.com/4Lk5hFA0qY— 401_da_sarpanch (@401_da_sarpanch) September 13, 2023Road Rage Turns Into Wrestling Match On Hwy401. @WhosHassan .#HWY401 #ONHwys #ONpoli #RoadRage #fight #Ontario #Toronto #TrafficAlert #trucking #TruckDriver #Transportation #RoadSafety pic.twitter.c...

Serbia and Kosovo leaders hold long-awaited face-to-face talks as the EU seeks to dial down tensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo held a long-awaited face-to-face meeting on Thursday in talks aimed aimed at improving their strained relations as calls mount for a change in the Western diplomatic approach toward them amid concern that their tensions could spiral out of control.Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti are in Brussels for talks under the so-called Belgrade-Pristina dialogue process, supervised by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.The last round of the dialogue in June ended without producing any obvious results. Vučić and Kurti refused to meet in person, and Borrell, who held talks separately with both men, conceded that they have “different interpretations of the causes and also the facts, consequences and solutions.”In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Borrell wrote that it was time to begin applying the agreement on the path toward normalization “in earnest. Today, we will see if they ar...

Biden’s rules on clean cars face a crucial test as Republican-led challenges go to an appeals court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts by the Biden administration to limit pollution from automobile tailpipes — a major source of planet-warming emissions — face a crucial test as legal challenges brought by Republican-led states head to a federal appeals court.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear arguments Thursday and Friday on three cases challenging Biden administration rules targeting cars and trucks. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, and the legal cases could go all the way to the Supreme Court.Republican attorneys general say the legal challenges are needed to curtail government overreach, while environmental groups and the Democratic administration say an adverse ruling could jeopardize protections against deadly pollution that contributes to climate change.The cases before the appeals court will test a 2021 Environmental Protection Agency rule that strengthened tailpipe pollution limi...

Spain’s women’s soccer league players call off strike after reaching a deal for higher minimum wage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The players in Spain’s women’s soccer league have called off a strike after reaching a deal to increase minimum wage, the league and unions said Thursday.The first set of games was not played last weekend because of the strike, but the second block of matches will now go ahead as scheduled.The minimum salary for the women’s league until now was 16,000 euros ($17,100), compared to 182,000 euros ($195,000) for the men’s league.The new deal will increase the minimum wage for the women’s league to 21,000 euros ($22,500) this season, with that sum rising to 23,500 euros ($25,200) by 2025. It could go even higher depending on revenue.Last season, of 334 players, 80 players made less than 20,000 euros ($21,400) per year, while the average salary was about 40,000 euros ($42,900), according to the league.The strike, which was announced last week by the players, coincided with the scandal caused by Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales when he kissed a na...

Nigeria experiences a nationwide power outage after its electrical grid fails

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria experienced a nationwide power outage Thursday after the country’s electrical grid collapsed due to technical failures, the West African nation’s electricity distribution companies reported.The outage affected all of Nigeria’s 36 states and the capital city of Abuja. The grid has collapsed multiple times, and it was not clear when power would be restored. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), which supplies electricity to southeastern Nigeria, issued a statement announcing a “total system” collapse. “Due to this development … we are unable to provide service to our customers,” company spokesperson Emeka Ezeh said. Such power failures are common in Nigeria which battles with dilapidated energy infrastructure that has caused frequent power outages.“Power supply shall be restored as soon as the national grid is powered back,” the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, which supplies power to parts of northern Nigeria, said ...

Displaced by earthquake from their mountain homes, Moroccan families brace for shelterless nights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — Rachid Alachoun, a 40-year-old plumber, washes clothes on the roof of his home. Half of it remains standing while the other half can be found in piles of rocks visible from the roof.Alachoun is among the survivors near the epicenter of an earthquake that hit Morocco last Friday. Authorities have reported 2,946 deaths and several thousand injuries.Though he has to walk through boulders and wires to get to his kitchen or bedroom, he has stayed in his family’s home in Amizmiz near the Mellah, the old Jewish quarter. He said the tent that authorities gave them is too small for his entire family.So his life at home goes on.Chairs in the remnants of the family home are covered with the dust of broken walls and possessions that are too large to carry out — a washing machine, tables and a fridge — are still trapped inside.He cooks chicken, carrots and olives in a clay pot on the gas stove in an area he’s kept tidy. The situation is especially precarious when aftersho...

Whole families drowned in Libya’s flood. Many didn’t realize the danger until they heard dams burst

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:42 GMT

DERNA, Libya (AP) — The wall of water several stories high smashed into apartment buildings, drowning entire families in minutes. One man lost at least 13 members of his extended family. Fadellalah has yet to hear about the fate of another 20, several days after two dams burst above the Libyan coastal city of Derna, unleashing epic floods that wiped out neighborhoods and washed some of the dead into sea.Thousands of others like Fadellalah are frantically trying to find out who survived the rain-swollen rampage.As a powerful storm bore down on his hometown, the information technology worker in Libya’s capital of Tripoli called his family Sunday to urge them to move to higher ground. “No one expected this,” said Fadelallah, who asked that his surname not be used because he fears reprisal from government officials and armed groups who could view his story as criticism of their efforts.“Some of them didn’t have cars. They didn’t have a way to get out,” he said of his family.Torrential r...