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Newsom signs law barring schoolbook bans based on racial, gender teachings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday to ban school boards from rejecting textbooks based on their teachings about the contributions of people from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities.Newsom called the measure “long overdue.”“From Temecula to Tallahassee, fringe ideologues across the country are attempting to whitewash history and ban books from schools,” Newsom said in a statement. “With this new law, we’re cementing California’s role as the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them.”The bill takes effect immediately. Protesters check out all LGBTQ+ books at Rancho Penasquitos library The topic of banning and censoring books has become a U.S. political flashpoint, cropping up in statesaround the country. Many of the new restrictions enacted by conservative-dominated school boards have been over textbook representations of sexu...

Padres push back against reports there's a lack of leadership in a dysfunctional franchise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Less than a year after a stirring run to the NL Championship Series, the high-priced, underperforming San Diego Padres are defending themselves against reports there is a lack of clubhouse leadership within a dysfunctional organization.While hinting that there have been issues in the clubhouse, right-hander Joe Musgrove said they have been addressed following a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune that questioned the clubhouse culture and a story in The Athletic that suggested cultural issues and dysfunction extend up to general manager A.J. Preller.Both publications said the reports were based on interviews with players and former club employees who had been granted anonymity.“You look at last year, we were one step away from being in the World Series competing for the ultimate prize. Not a whole lot’s changed this year,” said Musgrove, who has spent two stints on the injured list. “Obviously, there were things that went on in the clubhouse this year that we didn’t...

Leaf-peeping social media users are clogging a Vermont back road. The town is closing it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

POMFRET, Vt. (AP) — Social media users take note: You won’t be able to snap that fall foliage selfie at a popular Vermont spot. The town has temporarily closed the road to nonresidents due to overcrowding and “poorly behaved tourists.”The normally quiet dirt road from Pomfret to Woodstock, home to the frequently photographed Sleepy Hollow Farm, will be open only to residents through mid-October. And local law enforcement plans to enforce it.In recent years, social media users and photographers have clogged the narrow road for selfies and fall foliage shots of the scenic private property, drawn by its colorful hillside trees, the barn and classic New England home.Locals say they understand the lure of the beautiful leaves and landscape, but say some visitors have gone too far: blocking traffic with their parked vehicles, obstructing access for residents and emergency vehicles, as well as picnicking and even relieving themselves on private land surrounding the home. One Instagra...

India, at UN, is mum about dispute with Canada over Sikh separatist leader’s killing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — India’s top diplomat steered clear of his country’s row with Canada over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader but made an oblique swipe at how other countries respond to “terrorism” as he addressed world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar mainly used his speech to champion India’s growing global stature and leadership ambitions, highlight its recent turn chairing the Group of 20 industrialized nations and steering a meaty summit meeting earlier this month.But he also said that the world must not “countenance that political convenience determines responses to terrorism, extremism and violence.”India has often lashed out at Pakistan over what New Delhi sees as sponsoring terrorism, accusing its neighbor of arming and training insurgents fighting for the independence of Indian-controlled Kashmir or for its integration into Pakistan — a charge that Islamabad denies. But this time, the commen...

Egyptian rights group says 73 supporters of a presidential challenger have been arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities have detained at least 73 campaign volunteers for a challenger to incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in the December election, a rights group said Tuesday. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said the detainees were volunteers working for presidential hopeful and critic Ahmed Altantawy. The dozens of supporters face a variety of charges including joining a terrorist group — government parlance for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood — and spreading false news. Seven of them remained in detention as of Monday, the group said.Egypt’s chairman of the National Election Authority, Waleed Hamza, on Monday announced details of elections due by next year, saying the presidential polling would be held over three days in December. The outcome is widely anticipated to be a foregone conclusion in favor of the incumbent el-Sissi. The former defense minister has led the country since 2014 and has faced criticism from the West over his country’s h...

Americans have poor math skills. It’s a threat to US standing in the global economy, employers say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Like a lot of high school students, Kevin Tran loves superheroes, though perhaps for different reasons than his classmates.“They’re all insanely smart. In their regular jobs they’re engineers, they’re scientists,” said Tran, 17. “And you can’t do any of those things without math.” Tran also loves math. This summer, he studied calculus five hours a day with other high schoolers in a program at Northeastern University. But Tran and his friends are not the norm. Many Americans joke about how bad they are at math, and already abysmal scores on standardized math tests are falling even further. The nation needs people who are good at math, employers say, in the same way motion picture mortals need superheroes. They say America’s poor math performance isn’t funny. It’s a threat to the nation’s global economic competitiveness and national security.___The Education Reporting Collaborative, a coalition of eight newsrooms, is documenting the math crisis facing schools and highlig...

European court rules Turkish teacher’s rights were violated by conviction based on phone app use

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that the rights of a Turkish teacher convicted of what prosecutors called terrorism offences had been violated because the case was largely based on his use of a phone app.The court said its ruling could apply to thousands of people convicted following an attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 after the prosecution presented use of the ByLock encrypted messaging app as evidence of a crime.Ankara has blamed the coup on the followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has listed Gulen’s movement as a terrorist organization known as FETO. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed putsch.Yuksel Yalcinkaya was among tens of thousands arrested following the coup attempt in July 2016, in which 251 people were killed as pro-coup elements of the military fired at crowds and bombed state buildings. Around 35 people who allegedly participated in the plot also were killed.Ya...

1st Saudi envoy to the Palestinians in West Bank, Israeli minister in Riyadh amid normalization push

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed envoy to the Palestinian Authority presented his credentials to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his first visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a move linked to American efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.The trip by nonresident Saudi ambassador Nayef al-Sudairi came just as Israel’s tourism minister became the first senior Israeli official to make a public visit to Saudi Arabia. In a clear sign that a landmark diplomatic deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia has gained momentum, Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz on Tuesday led an Israeli delegation to Riyadh to take part in a conference hosted by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Katz’s office described the visit as unprecedented for an Israeli minister and said he would hold discussions with officials from across the Middle East.Meanwhile the visit by al-Sudairi to Ramallah, the seat of th...

California, a liberal bastion, may give Donald Trump an unlikely boost in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Few corners of the U.S. may be less hospitable to Donald Trump than California, where he lost by more than 5 million votes in the 2020 election. But as the former president seeks to return to the White House, the liberal bastion may give him an unlikely boost.A state GOP rule change has opened the possibility that Trump could sweep each of the state’s 169 delegates on March 5, when California is among more than a dozen states participating in the so-called Super Tuesday contests. With Trump already leading his rivals in many state and national polls, a dominant performance in California could move him much closer to the GOP nomination.“This race is quickly consolidating,” said GOP fundraiser Charles Moran, a Trump delegate in 2016 and 2020. With a win in California, he added, “I truly think Trump could take the nomination on Super Tuesday — then this is over.”With less than four months before the Iowa caucuses officially kick off the GOP nomination process, the dy...

MPs have lost confidence in Speaker amid controversy over Nazi veteran invite: Gould

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:51 GMT

OTTAWA — Government House leader Karina Gould says she believes MPs have lost confidence in Speaker Anthony Rota after he invited a man who fought for the Nazis to attend a speech by Ukraine’s president.Gould says she “can’t see” how Rota will maintain the confidence of the Liberals, and it’s time for the Speaker to do the “honourable thing.”Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is also urging Rota to resign, following similar calls by the NDP and Bloc Québécois on Monday.All members of Parliament stood and applauded 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka last Friday during the official visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, without knowing the details of his past.Hunka is a veteran of the First Ukrainian Division, which was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is calling the mistake “deeply embarrassing,...