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Hateful comments lead to virtual comment ban at Bay Area school board meeting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KRON) – Some boards are starting to take action after public meetings across the Bay Area got bombarded with hateful comments made virtually. Santa Rosa city schools hosted their first meeting without any online comments on Wednesday.Racist, antisemitic and homophobic comments took over the Santa Rosa city schools district's last meeting just two weeks ago, all over Zoom. The board decided to take swift action and immediately eliminated virtual comments.“I was shocked,” said Gabriel Albavera, a Santa Rosa school district official. “I was hurt, I was taken aback. Granted, it was online so I kind of took it with a grain of salt to a degree.”Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education believes a barrage of hateful virtual comments attempted to distract board members at their Sept. 13 meeting. San Francisco DA Jenkins blames judges for fentanyl epidemic “It’s easy to make those comments when you’re behind a screen as opposed to being in person,” Albavera said. ...

San Francisco DA Jenkins blames judges for fentanyl epidemic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- In San Francisco alone, thousands of people continue to die on the streets. Among those on the frontlines of this crisis is SF District Attorney Brooke Jenkins who promised a “tough on crime” approach when she took office just over a year ago.Yet, the death count in San Francisco this year is on track to break records. KRON4 sat down with Jenkins to talk about the progress her office has made and the challenges she says stand in the way of getting dealers off the streets. ‘It’s a ticking time bomb’: Bay Area moms who lost children warn of fentanyl dangers Read the full Q&A below. KRON4: You took office a year ago -- promising a tough-on-crime approach... more prosecution for drug offenders. but overdose deaths are up compared to last year. Why isn’t the problem getting any better?Jenkins: Yes, overdose deaths are up and that continues to be a concern. It's something that took years to get to this point of the crisis, and it's going to take us some...

Sanna Marin, film star? Ex-Finnish PM signs with talent agency

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

Former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has signed with entertainment and talent management company Range Media Partners. Marin is set to explore opportunities in media and entertainment, including TV, film, audio and brand partnership, Variety reported Wednesday. Range Media Partners — whose clients have included Hollywood stars such as Bradley Cooper, Tom Hardy and Keira Knightley — says it works with a “team of renowned leaders within the industry to provide performing and recording artists, directors, writers, professional athletes and others within the entertainment industry with top-quality management and representation services.” Earlier this month, Marin also joined the Tony Blair Institute as a strategic counselor. In that role, Marin will advise political leaders on their reform programs. Marin, who became Finland’s youngest prime minister at the age of 34 in 2019, stepped down in April after losing in the national election. Her ...

Lachlan Murdoch could reunite Fox and Trump, biographer says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

Lachlan Murdoch, the newly appointed heir to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, might try to salvage Donald Trump’s relationship with Fox News, according to the media mogul’s biographer.Since Rupert Murdoch announced his plan to resign, ending his decades-long reign atop the family business, there has been much speculation on what’s in store for Fox and News Corp.Among that, one burning question: Will Trump — once beloved by right-wing Fox News and later jilted in favor of Republican opponent Ron DeSantis — make a comeback as the network’s darling?Michael Wolff, author of upcoming book “The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty” and longtime Murdoch watcher, said a Trump reconciliation is a distinct possibility for Rupert’s son Lachlan.“I think he could do that. Absolutely,” Wolff told POLITICO’s new global podcast Power Play. “Why not? It’s a humiliation. I would not want to have to go and sit down for a cup of tea with my father, Rupert M...

Half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population flees as the separatist government says it will dissolve

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh announced Thursday that it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by the end of the year, and Armenian officials said more than half of the population has already fled.That is after Azerbaijan carried out a lightning offensive to reclaim full control over its breakaway region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh lay down their weapons and the separatist government dissolve itself.A decree to that effect was signed by the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan. The document cited an agreement reached last week to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of Nagorno-Karabakh residents and disarm troops in Armenia in exchange.Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During...

Chinese ambassador says Australian lawmakers who visit Taiwan are being utilized by separatists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — China’s ambassador to Australia on Thursday criticized Australian politicians who visit Taiwan, saying they are being utilized by separatists on the self-governing island.Ambassador Xiao Qian was commenting in Sydney after an Australian parliamentary delegation visited Taiwan this week, and as a former prime minister plans to deliver a speech in Taipei next month. China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory. Xiao said Australian parliamentarians and former prime ministers who visit Taiwan “carry political significance.”“It might be easily utilized by the political forces in Taiwan for their independent forces movement, for their secession movement, and I don’t want to see that happen,” Xiao told reporters.“I hope they will stick to the ‘one-China policy’ in words and indeed, refrain from engaging with Taiwan in whichever form or capacity so that they will not be politically utilized by people in the island with political motives,” Xiao said. The “on...

Senior Thai national park official, 3 others, acquitted in 9-year-old case of missing activist

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand on Thursday acquitted four national park employees, including a senior official, of the kidnapping and murder of an Indigenous rights activist who disappeared under suspicious circumstances more than nine years ago.The activist, Porlajee Rakchongcharoen, was last seen in the custody of Kaeng Krachan National Park officials in western Thailand’s Phetchaburi province on April 17, 2014.The killing or disappearance of community and environmental activists is a persistent but overlooked problem in Thailand and many developing countries. Porlajee’s is one of 76 cases of enforced disappearances in recent decades in Thailand that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights last year listed as unresolved.Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, the former chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park, and the three other defendants were arrested in 2019 after Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation uncovered partial remains they identified though DNA analysis as matching that...

Shooting incident in Slovak capital leaves 1 dead, 4 injured

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — A shooting incident early Thursday in the Slovak capital left one person dead and four others injured, officials said.A 32-year-old man died and four other people were transported to hospitals with injuries, the rescue service in Bratislava said. The incident occurred in the Dubravka neighborhood after midnight on Thursday, police said.Police spokesman Michal Szeiff told the local TASR news agency that officers arrived at the scene after receiving calls from people who reported gunshots and an explosion.Police fired shots at one person, Szeiff said.According to the news website aktuality.sk, a man opened fire from the window of an apartment building and was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.Police didn’t immediately give more details about the incident but said they were investigating.The Associated Press

The centuries-old card game of bridge offers a sharp contrast to esports at the Asian Games

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — If you’re looking for another kind of esport to follow from the Asian Games, try the centuries-old card game of bridge.Here the “e” would stand for “elderly” to represent the game’s aging demographic — not for “electronic” as in the youth-driven online gaming that’s proving to be one of the most popular events of the Asian Games, generating billions in annual revenue worldwide, and producing a new breed of global icons like South Korean League of Legends star “Faker.”Esports, chess, and bridge are among the so-called mind sports with full medal status at the two-week long Asian Games.Kelvin Ong heads the Singapore Bridge Association and laments it’s difficult to attract the nation’s youth to bridge. But as he talks he, himself, is playing a video game on a tablet.“I’ll shut it down,” the 37-year-old says sheepishly, knowing he’s inadvertently highlighted the problem. “I think bridge is losing its following with the you...

As thaw accelerates, Swiss glaciers lost 10% of their volume in the last 2 years, experts say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier melt in the Alpine country, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in just two years after high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter.Switzerland — home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe — has seen 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023, the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022, the biggest thaw since measurements began, the academy’s commission for cryosphere observation said.Experts at the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center have been on the lookout for a possible extreme melt this year amid early warning signs about the country’s estimated 1,400 glaciers, a number that is now dwindling.“The acceleration is dramatic, with as much ice being lost in only two years as was the case between 1960 and 1990,” the academy said. “The two extreme consecutive years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and the disappearance of many smaller...