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Catholic priests hold a ceremony blessing same-sex couples in defiance of a German archbishop

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Several Catholic priests held a ceremony blessing same-sex couples outside Cologne Cathedral on Wednesday night in a protest against the city’s conservative archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.Their protest was triggered by Cologne church officials’ criticism of a priest from Mettmann, a town near Duesseldorf, who in March had held a “blessing ceremony for lovers” — including same-sex couples.Officials from the Cologne archdiocese, which Mettmann belongs to, had reprimanded the priest afterward and stressed that the Vatican doesn’t allow blessings of same-sex couples, German news agency dpa reported.The blessing of same-sex couples on Wednesday was the latest sign of rebellion of progressive believers in Germany’s most populous diocese with about 1.8 million members.Several hundred people showed up for the outdoor blessing service for same-sex and also heterosexual couples. Waving rainbow flags, they sang the Beatles hit “All You Need Is Love,” d...

Ahead of abortion vote, Ohio Supreme Court has ordered a rewrite of some misleading ballot language

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A wildly divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday that only one element of the disputed ballot language for describing a closely watched fall abortion rights question is misleading and must be rewritten.The decision lets stand most of the word choices targeted in a lawsuit by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the pro-abortion rights ballot campaign, as well as the substitution of “unborn child” for “fetus,” which it chose not to dispute.But it also marked the high court’s second slap this year at the Republican-led Ohio Ballot Board’s chosen wording for describing constitutional amendments to voters. In June, justices ordered the panel to reword its description of a divisive August constitutional amendment that would have made amending Ohio’s constitution harder.In both cases, the summaries were advanced by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an abortion opponent and 2024 U.S. Senate candidate who chairs the panel in his role as s...

Biden warns Netanyahu about the health of Israel’s democracy and urges compromise on court overhaul

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden raised “hard issues,” including protecting the “checks and balances” in a democracy, in a Wednesday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushing Netanyahu to find a compromise on a planned judicial overhaul that has set off protests in Israel and concerns in Washington.The two leaders sat down and took time to chat one-on-one on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. It was their first meeting since Netanyahu took office at the helm of his country’s far-right government late last year.Netanyahu tried to play down concerns at the start of the meeting about his contentious proposed judicial overhaul, saying there is “one thing that will never change and that is Israel’s commitment to democracy.”Biden opened the meeting by stressing the U.S. friendship with Israel as being “ironclad” and saying that “without Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world who is secure. Israel is essential.” But Biden also acknowledged the ...

Stock market today: Wall Street stays mixed, bond yields rise after Fed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are mixed Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it may not cut interest rates next year by as much as it earlier thought, regardless of how much Wall Street wants it.The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher in afternoon trading after briefly turning lower shortly after the announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 216 points, or 0.6%, at 34,734, as of 2:36 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.The Fed held its main interest rate steady, as was widely expected. Officials also indicated they may raise the federal funds rate one more time this year, as the Fed tries to get inflation back down to its target of 2%.Perhaps more importantly for the market, Fed officials also suggested they may cut rates next year by only half a percentage point. Three months ago, they were penciling in a full percentage point of cuts in 2024. Treasury yields in the bond market immediately turned higher after the Fed released its projections. They had a...

Gates Foundation commits $200 million to pay for medical supplies and contraception

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $200 million to help save the lives of mothers and children during child birth, as the largest American philanthropic donor throws its weight behind the issue during the nonprofit’s annual Goalkeepers conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Melinda French Gates, who says the issue is personal to her, smiled broadly as she introduced herself not just as the co-founder and co-chair of the foundation but as “Nona,” or grandmother, gesturing to her oldest daughter, Jennifer, who was seated in the audience in New York on Wednesday. The foundation pledged $100 million each to health products manufacturer Unitaid, and UNFPA, the U.N. agency for reproductive health, to fund access to health care and contraceptive supplies and information in low- and middle-income countries. The Gates Foundation has been a major supporter of Unitaid, donating $50 million in each 2012 and 2017, according to the foundation&...

Woman rescued from outhouse toilet after climbing in to retrieve Apple Watch, Michigan police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

BAGLEY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A woman was rescued Tuesday from an outhouse toilet in northern Michigan after she climbed in to retrieve her Apple Watch and became trapped.The woman, whose name was not released, lowered herself inside the toilet after dropping the watch at the Department of Natural Resources boat launch at Dixon Lake in Otsego County’s Bagley Township, state police said Wednesday in a release.First responders were called when the woman was heard yelling for help. The toilet was removed and a strap was used to haul the woman out.“If you lose an item in an outhouse toilet, do not attempt to venture inside the containment area. Serious injury may occur,” state police said in the release.The state police did not say Wednesday if the woman was injured or if the watch was recovered.Bagley Township is about 240 miles (386 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.The Associated Press

Ohio’s political mapmakers are going back to work after Republican infighting caused a week’s delay

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Redistricting Commission was set to get back to business Wednesday after two Republican legislative leaders who may be rivals for the House speakership next year settled a political dispute that delayed the time-crunched panel’s work by a week.Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine had reconvened the commission Sept. 13, but he was unable to do anything more than swear in its members — himself, two other statewide officeholders and four state lawmakers — because Republicans were without a co-chair. Indecision persisted, so the governor also canceled a second attempted meeting he had set for that Friday.DeWine set the next meeting for Wednesday afternoon, then he came down with COVID-19 — precluding him from pinch-hitting as chair while Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Jason Stephens came to some agreement.Hours before the meeting was set to begin, Huffman and Stephens announced their decision. They designated a seemingly neutral third pa...

Biden and Brazil’s Lula focus on workers’ rights, while publicly playing down differences

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, focused on workers’ rights as the leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s largest democracies met Wednesday in New York.But a new partnership committed to labor rights comes amid differences between the presidents over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the U.S. embargo of Cuba and other issues. Still, Biden and Lula, in remarks to reporters, were eager to display their common goals at the start of their meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.Biden sought to tie the meeting to domestic matters. Long a champion of labor unions, Biden is navigating strikes in the U.S. by autoworkers, screenwriters and actors who are seeking better pay and protections in a changing global economy. He has declined the request by the United Auto Workers leader to join the picket line.“When the middle does well, everybody does well,” Biden told Lula. “Working-class folks have a chance to move up. And...

A man shot by police while firing a rifle to celebrate a new gun law has been arrested, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida man who was shot by police as he fired a rifle into the air to celebrate the state’s new open-carry gun law has been booked into jail after spending more than two months in the hospital, authorities said.The 37-year-old old man was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail on Friday on 53 total charges, including felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer with violence and possession of a short-barrel rifle, and 48 misdemeanor counts of discharging a weapon in public, according to court records. Officers responded to an apartment complex on July 7 where they found a man in body armor firing a gun into the air, according to a Miami police arrest report. Witnesses later told officers that the man claimed he was celebrating the new law that went into effect on July 1.An officer ordered the man to stop shooting and show his hands, but the man tried to run away, police said. The man turned his body toward the officer while trying t...

Nearly 100 migrants rescued from a yacht off southwestern Greece

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:22 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Nearly 100 migrants were safely evacuated Wednesday from a yacht reported to be in difficulty off the southwestern coast of Greece, authorities said.The coast guard said in a statement that the yacht carrying 93 people was located about 40 nautical miles (46 miles, 74 kilometers) west of the small town of Pylos. There were no reports of missing passengers.Six of the people on board were picked up by another yacht in the area and taken to Pylos, where one woman was transferred to a hospital in the southern city of Kalamata.Another 87 people were picked up by two passing tanker ships and transported to Kalamata escorted by coast guard patrol vessels, the statement said.The area is near where a deadly migrant shipwreck in June left hundreds of people dead and missing and led to allegations that Greek authorities failed to respond appropriately to rescue the passengers. The overcrowded trawler had set sail from Libya with an estimated 500-700 people on board. Only ...