SAO PAULO (AP) — Group of 20 leaders agreed Friday to join efforts to fight disinformation and set up an agenda on artificial intelligence as their governments struggle against the speed, scale and reach of misinformation and hate speech.
The ministers, who gathered this week in Maceio, the capital of the northeastern state of Alagoas, emphasized in a statement the need for digital platforms to be transparent and “in line with relevant policies and applicable legal frameworks.”
It is the first time in the G20’s history that the group recognizes the problem of disinformation and calls for transparency and accountability from digital platforms, João Brant, secretary for digital policy at the Brazilian presidency, told The Associated Press by phone.
G20 representatives also agreed to establish guidelines for developing artificial intelligence, calling for “ethical, transparent, and accountable use of AI,” with human oversight and compliance with privacy and human rights laws.
“We hope this will be referenced in the leaders’ declaration and that South Africa will continue the work,” Renata Mielli, adviser to Brazil’s ministry of science, technology and innovation, said. The G20 Leaders’ Summit is scheduled for November, in Rio de Janeiro.
Mielli, Brazil’s negotiator in the AI working group, said there were disagreements from countries including China and the United States, but declined to provide details. In the end, she said, a consensus prevailed that the world’s richest countries should collaborate to reduce global asymmetry in AI development.
This week’s meeting took place in the aftermath of X’s ban in Brazil, ordered by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes after a monthslong feud with its owner, tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Since last year, X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to block some users, mostly far-right activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. Musk has called the Brazilian justice a dictator and an autocrat due to his rulings affecting his companies in Brazil.
Brazil currently has the presidency of the 20 leading rich and developing nations and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has put issues that concern the developing world — such as the reduction of inequalities and the reform of multilateral institutions — at the heart of its agenda.
SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday seized about $3 million from bank accounts belonging to social media platform X and satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, both companies controlled by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The move by Justice Alexandre de Moraes was aimed at collecting funds that are equivalent to the amount that X owes to the country in fines. The bank accounts of the two companies have since been unfrozen.
Legal analysts have questioned de Moraes’ prior decision to freeze Starlink’s bank account to pay for cases related to X. While Musk owns both X and SpaceX, which operates Starlink, the two companies are separate entities.
Brazil’s Supreme Court said Friday in a statement that de Moraes ruled to transfer more than 7.2 million Brazilian reais ($1.3 million) from an X bank account and almost 11 million Brazilian reais ($2 million) from a Starlink account.
De Moraes made the decision on Wednesday, Brazil’s Supreme Court said. His ruling on the case is yet to be made public.
Brazil’s Supreme Court also said that the banks that hold accounts of the two companies were informed on Thursday they had complied with the decision.
“After the payment of the full amount that was owed, the justice (de Moraes) considered there was no need to keep the bank accounts frozen and ordered the immediate unfreezing of bank accounts/financial assets,” the Brazilian Supreme Court said.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The social media platform has been under fire in Brazil since it refused to remove content flagged as illegal by the Supreme Court justice.
De Moraes is the same justice who suspended X in Brazil due to Musk’s decision to not have a legal representative for the company in the South American nation, which is against the law.
The company has claimed that de Moraes wants an in-country representative so that local authorities can exert leverage by having someone to arrest.
Many legal analysts, including some who have supported de Moraes’ rulings related to X, disagree with charging Starlink for X’s fines.
“Starlink is a different company. Belonging to the same economic group doesn’t mean it is also responsible for a debt it did not take part of. It didn’t even have a chance to defend itself,” Lênio Streck, a renowned Brazilian jurist, said in his social media channels. “What could Starlink have done to avoid what other company did?”
Luís Henrique Machado, a law professor at the IDP university in the capital, Brasilia, said de Moraes’ decision is consistent.
“The social media company was sanctioned for not removing content after an order of the Supreme Court amid ongoing investigations. It is totally understandable that the judge requests that the fines be paid,” Machado said. “The ruling is legitimate in imposing the transfer of the amounts in compulsorily fashion.”
Since last year, X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to block some users, mostly far-right activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. Musk has called the Brazilian justice a dictator and an autocrat due to his rulings affecting his companies in Brazil.
On. Aug. 31, Musk’s social media platform was banned nationwide and de Moraes set a $9,000 daily fine for anyone using a virtual private network (VPN) to skirt the suspension. Brazil’s X users mostly started washing up on Threads and Bluesky.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flooded Sao Paulo’s main boulevard for an Independence Day rally, buoyed by de Moraes’ decisions on X, a ban they say is proof of their political persecution.
X had 22 million users in Brazil, according to estimates in the Digital 2024: Brazil report, just one-sixth the number on Instagram, and about one-fifth of Facebook or TikTok.
Since January 2022, when Starlink began operations in Brazil, it has captured a 0.5 percent share of the internet market, according to Brazil’s telecommunications agency Anatel.
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian troops have rescued 13 hostages who were kidnapped by an extremist group in the northwestern state of Kaduna, the country’s army said on Saturday.
The army said in a statement that “the troops successfully overwhelmed the terrorists, forcing them to abandon their captives.”
Several kidnappers were killed and others captured, the military added. It didn’t specify what armed group the kidnappers belonged to.
The rescued hostages were taken to a military facility for a medical assessment before being reunited with their families. Weapons, ammunition, solar panels and cash were also discovered during the rescue operation.
Kidnappings have become common in parts of northern Nigeria, where dozens of armed groups take advantage of a limited security presence to carry out attacks in villages and along major roads. Most victims are released only after the payment of ransoms that sometimes run into the thousands of dollars.
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadi rebels, launched its insurgency in 2009 to establish Islamic Shariah law in the country. At least 35,000 people have been killed and 2.1 million people displaced as a result of the extremist violence, according to U.N. agencies in Nigeria.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Roadside explosions in the Somali capital killed five people and wounded eight others Saturday, according to a city official.
An explosive device had been planted at a spot in a street where many young people had gathered to take photos, Abdullahi Sheikh Abdirahman, district commissioner of Mogadishu’s Kahda district, told reporters.
“I saw several people lying on the street minutes after the first explosion, and when rescuers came to assist, another blast happeneed, causing most of the casualties,” witness Abdisamad Osman told The Associated Press.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack. But the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which opposes Somalia’s federal government, frequently carries out such assaults.
The attack comes just weeks after a similar explosion at a beach where more than 30 people were killed and over 60 others wounded. That attack, one of the deadliest in recent months, raised concern over the increasing frequency of violent attacks in Mogadishu.
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Air Canada and the union representing its pilots have come to terms on a labor agreement that is likely to prevent a shutdown of Canada’s largest airline.
Talks betwen the company and the Air Line Pilots Association produced a tentative, four-year collective agreement, the airline announced in a statement early Sunday.
The prospective deal recognizes the contributions of the pilots flying for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge while setting a new framework for company growth. The terms will remain confidential until ratification by union members and approval by the airline’s board of directors over the next month, the airline said.
The pilots association said its Air Canada Master Executive Council voted to approve the tentative agreement on behalf of more than 5,400 Air Canada pilots. After review and ratification by a majority of members, the deal is expected to generate an additional $1.9 billion for the pilots over the period of the agreement, the union said in a statement.
“While it has been an exceptionally long road to this agreement, the consistent engagement and unified determination of our pilots have been the catalyst for achieving this contract,” Charlene Hudy, the executive council’s chair, said in the statement. “After several consecutive weeks of intense round-the-clock negotiations, progress was made on several key issues including compensation, retirement, and work rules.”
Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon confirmed the agreement on Sunday and lauded the company and the union.
“Thanks to the hard work of the parties and federal mediators, disruptions have been prevented for Canadians,” MacKinnon said in a statement. “Negotiated agreements are always the best way forward and yield positive results for companies and workers.”
The airline and its pilots have been in contract talks for more than a year. The pilots have sought wages competitive with their U.S. counterparts, but Air Canada continues to post record profits while expecting pilots to accept below-market compensation, the union said
The two sides could have issued a 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout beginning Sunday. The airline said the notice would have triggered its three-day wind down plan and started the clock on a full work stoppage as soon as Sept. 18.
Air Canada spokesman Christophe Hennebelle previously said the airline was committed to negotiations, but faced union wage demands that the company could not meet.
The airline was not seeking federal intervention, but cautioned the government should be prepared to help avoid major disruptions from the possible shutdown of an airline carrying more than 110,000 passengers daily, Hennebelle said.
Business leaders had urged the federal government to intervene in the talks earlier in the week, but MacKinnon said there was no reason the sides should not have been able to reach a collective agreement.
In August, the Canadian government asked the country’s industrial relations board to issue a back-to-work order to end a railway shutdown.
Leaders of numerous business groups including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada convened in Ottawa on Thursday to call for action, including binding arbitration, to avoid the widespread economic disruptions of an airline shutdown.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday his party would not support efforts to force pilots back to work.
“If there’s any bills being proposed on back to work legislation, we’re going to oppose that,” he said.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Arms raised high. Banners denouncing the war in Gaza. Crowds united in song and wrapped in keffiyehs, the black-and-white checkered scarves that have become a badge of Palestinian identity.
It could have been any other pro-Palestinian rally erupting over the Israel-Hamas war if it weren’t for the fact that these thousands of protesters were actually soccer fans at a league match in Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Club Palestino supporters watch a local league match against Santiago Wanderers at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
A Club Palestino fan wears a keffiyeh during a local league soccer match against Santiago Wanderers at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Club Palestino soccer team fans watch their team’s game with Santiago Wanderers at a local league match at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Although the players darting across the field had names like José and Antonio and grew up in a Spanish-speaking South American nation, their fervor for the Palestinian cause and red, white, black and green-colored jerseys underscored how Chile’s storied soccer club serves as an entry point for the world’s largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East to connect with an ancestral home thousands of miles away.
“It’s more than just a club, it takes you into the history of the Palestinians,” said Bryan Carrasco, captain of Chile’s legendary Club Deportivo Palestino.
“We’re united in the face of the war,” said Diego Khamis, director of the country’s Palestinian community. “It’s daily suffering.”
Club Palestino soccer team fans celebrate their second goal against Santiago Wanderers at a local league match at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
A Club Palestino player wears socks with an outline of territory Palestinians claim as theirs during a local league soccer match against Santiago Wanderers at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
In a sport where authorities penalize athletes for flaunting political positions, particularly on such explosive issues as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Club Palestino is an unabashed exception that wears its pro-Palestinian politics on its sleeve — and on its torso, stadium seats and anywhere else it can find.
The club’s brazen gestures have caused offense before. Chile’s Football Federation fined the club in 2014 after the number “1” on the back of their shirts was shaped as a map of Palestine before Israel’s creation in 1948.
But players’ fierce pride in their Palestinian identity has otherwise caused little controversy in this country of 19 million, home to 500,000 ethnic Palestinians.
“It’s our roots and it feels like home,” said Jaime Barakat, a Palestino fan and shawarma vendor.
Club Palestino soccer team fans watch their team play Santiago Wanderers at a local league match at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
The country’s small Jewish population of 16,000 is unsettled. “Boric, who frequently speaks of peace, has imported the Middle East conflict to Chile,” the Jewish Community of Chile said in a statement.
Chile’s Palestinians say the Mideast conflict was imported decades before Boric, spurring waves of displacement that forged the surprising history of Arab immigration to this Pacific coast nation from the late 1800s as the Ottoman Empire crumbled and the Zionist movement took root.
In 1920, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate of Palestine, unleashing tensions over Britain’s Balfour Declaration that promised historic Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people. More Palestinians crossed the Atlantic and braved treks across the Andes by mule to reach far-flung Chile. That same year, Club Palestino was created by a group of Palestinian soccer enthusiasts who gathered one winter day in Chile’s southern city of Osorno.
“My father told me they came here because there were more possibilities,” said 90-year-old Juan Sabaj Dhimes in Patronato, a historically Palestinian neighborhood in the capital, with its coffee shops and hookah bars splashed in the colors of the Palestinian national flag and plastered with Palestino club crests.
A Club Palestino fan waves a Palestinian flag during a local league soccer match against Santiago Wanderers at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Chile’s Palestinian community exploded after the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation — in which more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were pushed from their homes in what Arabs call the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” and dispersed all over the world.
Chile was then an upwardly mobile nation among poorer neighbors seeking to attract migrants to populate the country. Palestinian descendants say the arid land, coastal desert and fresh figs and olives conjured an earlier generation’s nostalgia for historic Palestine.
“The climate is one of the things that most captivated the Palestinians who arrived,” said Mauricio Abu-Ghosh, former president of Chile’s Palestinian Federation.
The scrappy soccer club went professional in 1947, becoming the pride of the community. Rocketing to Chile’s top division and clinching five official titles, its appeal soon stretched to the Middle East, where the descendants of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan still congregate in camps and cafes to catch Palestino matches broadcast by satellite network Al Jazeera.
Club Palestino’s Nicolas Linares plays in a local league soccer match against Santiago Wanderers at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Despite of being a small soccer club, with an average of only about 2,000 spectators per game, Deportivo Palestino — winner of five official titles and a regular fixture in continental tournaments — is the third most followed Chilean club on Instagram, with more than 741,000 followers, only behind eternal rivals Universidad de Chile (791,000) and Colo-Colo (2.3 million).
“They tell us about the violence suffered by their people,” said 20-year-old Chilean fan Luis Torres at Palestino’s home stadium in Santiago. “It makes me angry, sad, so we’re here to bring a bit of joy.”
Club Palestino soccer team fans celebrate their second goal against Santiago Wanderers at a local league match at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Palestinians streaming out of church in Patronato on a recent Sunday said they had prayed for the safety of their families in Gaza. “We all have cousins, siblings, grandparents who still live there,” said Khamis.
The war has wrenched Palestino, forcing the club’s training school in Gaza to shut down and disrupting programs it supports across the occupied West Bank.
But within Chile it has breathed new life into players and fans. Before kickoff, the team now rushes the pitch clad in keffiyehs, brandishing anti-war banners and taking a knee.
In May the team abandoned one little pre-match ritual of emerging on the field holding hands with child mascots. Instead, players extended their arms to the side, grasping at empty space.
It was a subtle gesture — a tribute to the “invisible children” killed in Gaza, the team later explained — that could have been lost entirely on ordinary soccer fans.
MARATHON, Greece (AP) — In the blackened remains of his workshop, sculptor Vangelis Ilias stacks what little is left of years of his efforts.
In August, a ferocious wildfire swept through the mountains north of Athens, Greece’s capital, pushing into the city and coming within feet of where Ilias created made-to-order tombstones, statues and other items out of white marble.
The flames ignited a gasoline-filled generator at his workshop, which burned for two days before he could get near the property. A bust of a Greek Orthodox saint was spared and now rests in front of the gutted and soot-covered site in the suburb of Halandri.
“It’s not the financial cost. I’ve lost my work — something spiritual,” Ilias said. “I’ve been doing this for 35 years, since I was a kid, aged 14.”
The Aug. 11-13 wildfire tore through more than 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and scrubland and scorched the shores of the city’s main water reservoir at Marathon, where an ancient battle inspired the modern distance race.
After reaching the urban fringes of Athens, the blaze forced thousands to flee. It destroyed homes, businesses, green spaces and a sports arena in the northern suburbs — and left deep scars on the landscape around Greece’s capital, home to more than a quarter of the country’s population of 10.4 million.
The National Observatory of Athens said the fire brought the area of the land burned in the Attica region since 2017 to more than 700 square kilometers (270 square miles). That represents 26% of the region’s total area and 37% of its forests — underscoring the increasing frequency and severity of the wildfires in recent years.
“We knew that this year would be the most difficult firefighting period in living memory,” Vassilis Kikilias, a minister for the climate crisis and civil protection, told private Skai television. “Since the beginning of the fire season on May 1, some 4,000 fires have started, a rate 50% higher than last year.”
Blackened hills, torched cars and the aerial views of the devastation serve as stark reminders of the blaze’s intensity — it defied a massive deployment of firefighters, as well as water-dropping planes and helicopters. Several other countries also scrambled planes and fire crews to help Athens.
The government ordered speedy evacuations along the southward path, but also imposed fines on homeowners who disregarded fire safety regulations.
“The fire started, and then strong winds carried it — that part was a natural phenomenon,” Ilias said. “But many residents ignored orders to clear the grounds of their homes, so we can’t just blame politicians for the response. It’s also up to us.”
HELSINKI (AP) — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said Saturday they are committed to completing by the end of the decade a financially troubled and badly delayed high-speed rail project integrating the three Baltic countries with the continental European rail network.
Set to link the Baltic capitals of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius on a new track with passenger trains running at speeds of up to 250 kph (155 mph), the Rail Baltica project was launched in 2014 as a pan-Baltic joint venture with financing primarily provided by the European Union.
Vladimir Svet, the Estonian infrastructure minister, said Saturday after an earlier meeting with the Latvian and Lithuanian transport ministers that “it is still our goal to start passenger and freight train traffic on the entire Rail Baltica route from 2030.”
“However, we still have to keep an eye on the growth of costs and find ways to save money and build more efficiently,” he said in a statement.
While the initial 2010 plan saw the project’s total cost at around 3.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion), a June joint report by auditors from the three Baltic states showcased the venture’s ballooning costs and said the project may need up to 19 billion euros ($21 billion) more funding to be completed.
It is unclear how much the EU, which has identified Rail Baltica as one of the key European transport projects, is willing to inject money into the venture.
Construction of new rail track, running a total length of 870 kilometers (540 miles) from Tallinn, Estonia to Kaunas, Lithuania and onward to the Polish border, started in 2019 but has been marred by delays and disputes between the Baltic governments of the train’s routing.
The venture is running at least five years behind as the first pan-Baltic passenger and cargo trains were supposed run on the new tracks in 2025.
Critics of the project say the meager population base in the Baltics — just over 6 million people live in the three Baltic states — makes the project economically unfeasible for passenger travel and its emphasis should be more on cargo, also a key element in the venture.
“The Rail Baltica project is a symbolic return of the Baltic States to Europe — until the Second World War the Baltic States were already connected to Europe with 1,435 mm wide (gauge),” the Rail Baltica website says.
“But since the middle of the 20th century the Baltic countries have been mainly linked to an East-West railway axis using the Russian gauge 1520 mm rails,” it said.
Once completed, the high-speed train is set to cover the 660 kilometer (410 mile) journey from Tallinn to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, in 3 hours and 38 minutes, offering a substantial time savings to the current car or bus ride of up to nine hours.
With additional rail connections, the north-south Rail Baltica will connect the Baltic states with Warsaw, Poland and, eventually, Berlin — a key target of the Baltic governments.
Due to the changed geopolitical situation in Baltic Sea region following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — all sharing border with Russia — are stressing that the need to invest in infrastructure, which enables fast and large quantities of military equipment to be transported, has grown significantly.
Finland, strongly linked to Estonia by numerous ferry connections from Helsinki to Tallinn through the Baltic Sea, is indirectly involved in the venture.
LONDON (AP) — One doesn’t need to know sign language to understand what Michael Connolly feels about his colleagues’ efforts to break down the barriers posed by his deafness.
When asked what he thought of his teammates’ decision to learn British Sign Language, the 45-year-old autoworker at the Nissan plant in Sunderland, England, grinned and flashed a universal symbol: Two thumbs up.
Connolly loves having the chance to banter with his workmates, to talk about everyday things — the kids, vacation plans, a TV program. And now he can, because the entire 25-member bumper-paint team at Sunderland started learning BSL at the beginning of the year.
“I’m glad they have all learned sign language for us because I can talk and I lipread the hearing person, but I have my limits,” Connolly signed in an interview with The Associated Press. “If you reverse the situation and the hearing person can sign and speak, they have no limits.’’
The initiative grew out of a broader effort to improve efficiency at the Sunderland plant, which makes Qashqai and Juke sport utility vehicles. While Nissan took steps to overhaul training and increase the use of visual aids during briefings, the bumper-paint team decided to go a step further and learn sign language, said supervisor John Johnson.
Connolly is one of four hearing-impaired people assigned to the team, which works in less bustling area of the plant where it is safer for workers who can’t hear the sound of an approaching vehicle.
Johnson said the thought of mastering the combination of gestures, facial expressions and body language that comprise BSL was daunting. But it helped him understand what life was like for Connolly and the other deaf workers as they tried to learn their jobs and fit into a team without having the ability to share the personal tidbits that build friendships.
“So as a team, we thought how can we knock that barrier down? And obviously sign language was the solution, or at least the start of an opportunity,’’ Johnson said.
The team’s decision is very unusual, said Teri Devine, the associate director for inclusion and employment at The Royal National Institute for Deaf People. While many employers make an effort to reach out and engage with deaf workers, few go as far as learning sign language, she said.
Research shows that many deaf people, particularly BSL users, feel isolated at work, Devine said.
Having more hearing people who understand sign language is important because even the most proficient lip readers will only pick up 30% to 40% of a conversation, she added.
“It’s absolutely crucial that deaf people are included in everyday conversations, and it’s very easy to include them in those conversations,’’ Devine said. “The fact that (workers at) Nissan have gone and learned some BSL to support their colleague is actually fantastic. I take my hat off to them.’’
There are mountains of research showing that kindness in the workplace improves productivity as well as being good for the people with their noses to the grindstone, said Cary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology and health at the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.
You can see that at work on the bumper-paint team, where workers had limited ability to communicate before they learned sign language, Cooper said. But now they’ve created the opportunity for dialogue.
“You can find out: What did you do this weekend? What about the football results,” he said. “In other words, you’re cementing the relationship — the team building. And that’s important. It goes far beyond, you know, ‘you haven’t painted that bit of the bumper.’”
ROME (AP) — Italy approved new rules late Wednesday to put lucrative concessions for beach clubs up for bidding by June 2027, responding to pressing demands from the EU to open up the sector to new players.
Under the new legislation by the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni, existing beach licenses would remain valid until September 2027.
The deadline could be further postponed to March 2028 if there are “objective reasons” to delay the tender process, the government said.
The compromise seeks to address complaints by existing operators who risk losing their concessions and would be entitled to compensation paid by the new holders.
For almost two decades, the European Commission has been locked in a legal battle with Italy over its beach concession practices, accusing the country of lacking transparency and breaching competition rules.
Previous Italian governments, from left to right, have staunchly resisted EU directives requiring competitive tendering, persistently renewing the existing beach concessions without open procedures.
For years, many of these beach spots have been controlled by the same operators, often resulting in a lack of innovation and high prices.
Economists believe that opening the sector could bring in fresh players, potentially improving service quality and reducing costs for beachgoers.
Currently, they can pay from 25 euros to rent two chaise lounges and an umbrella for the day in the most basic establishments, to several hundred euros in fancy resorts such as Capri or Puglia’s Salento.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s president on Thursday inaugurated the rebuilt tower of a church that became associated with the Nazis’ takeover of power and whose remains were demolished under communist rule.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it offers an opportunity to reflect on the country’s complicated past amid a surge in authoritarian and antidemocratic attitudes.
The baroque tower of the Garrison Church, rebuilt with a viewing platform 57 meters (187 feet) above street level, rises over the center of Potsdam, just outside Berlin. Mayor Mike Schubert said it “provides a new view over the expanse of our city and also into the depths and the abysses of our history.”
On March 21, 1933, the Garrison Church, or Garnisonkirche, was the scene of the first opening of parliament after Adolf Hitler became chancellor — weeks after the fire at the Reichstag building in Berlin that was followed by the suspension of civil liberties.
Outside the church, Hitler shook hands with President Paul von Hindenburg. The scene came to symbolize the alliance of the “new” and “old” Germany, between the Nazis and conservative traditionalists.
The church was originally built in the 1730s to serve the Prussian royal court and the military. It burned out in bombing shortly before the end of World War II in 1945, and the remains of the tower were blown up under East Germany’s communist government in 1968.
Ambitions to rebuild the church — and opposition to the plans — date back to the 1990s. The partial reconstruction was eventually carried out by a foundation backed by the Protestant church.
Critics view the church as a symbol of militarism and a place the far-right could identify with. More than 100 people demonstrated opposite the tower Thursday in a protest organized by a group that has opposed the rebuilding.
Backers aim to counter the opposition with an exhibition taking a critical look at the history of the site. The words “Guide our feet into the way of peace” are inscribed into the base of the rebuilt tower in five languages.
The regional Protestant bishop, Christian Stäblein, pledged at the inauguration ceremony to ensure that “the enemies of democracy and peace … have no place here.”
Steinmeier acknowledged that the road to rebuilding the tower “was long, it was complicated and, as we can hear outside, it remains contentious.”
“This place challenges us,” he said. “It confronts us with its and with our history.”
Under the kaisers, preachers at the church “put religion into the service of nationalist propaganda, glorified war and unconditional obedience,” Steinmeier said. After the end of World War I and the monarchy, it still “attracted antidemocratic forces.”
But he said the building’s hefty historical baggage, and the debate about it, offers opportunities today.
Concern about the strength of the far right has mounted in Germany in recent months. The far-right Alternative for Germany party appears on course for strong performances in three state elections in the formerly communist east — including in Brandenburg, whose capital Potsdam is — over the next month.
“Contempt for democracy and its institutions, fascination with authoritarianism and exaggerated nationalism unfortunately are not just yesterday’s issues — they are alarmingly topical,” the president said. “The new Garrison Church can be a place where we develop an awareness for historical contexts … and critically question Prussian and German history. More than that, we can reflect on how to deal with history.”
The rebuilt tower stands alongside a communist-era data processing center, which now serves as a working place for artists. Steinmeier, who was the patron of the rebuilding project, said that center should be preserved. There are no plans to rebuild the nave of the church.
The reconstruction cost about 42 million euros ($46 million), the majority provided by the federal government, according to the foundation behind it. The tower opens to the public starting Friday.
Potsdam is home to a range of historical sites including the Sanssouci Palace and its park, and the Cecilienhof Palace where the wartime allies’ Potsdam conference was held in 1945.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A dismissed town mayor who fled the Philippines after being accused of helping establish an illegal online gaming and scam center catering mostly to clients in China has been arrested near Indonesia’s capital, officials said Wednesday.
Indonesian authorities arrested Alice Guo at a house in Jakarta’s satellite city of Tangerang just before midnight on Tuesday, according to Khrisna Murti, chief of the international division of the National Police.
Guo was in custody and awaiting deportation to the Philippines, Murti said, adding that her arrest was the result of “cooperation between Indonesian and Filipino’s police.”
“Let this serve as a warning to those who attempt to evade justice,” Marcos said and added that arrangements were being made to bring Guo back to the Philippines where she faces a slew of criminal charges.
After Guo fled the Philippines in July, she was tracked in Malaysia and Singapore before turning up in Indonesia. Two companions, who reportedly slipped out of the Philippines with her without going through normal immigration and clearing procedures, were recently arrested in Indonesia.
Guo ran as a Filipino candidate in 2022 elections and won as mayor of the rural town of Bamban in Tarlac province north of Manila. She was accused of helping establish a massive complex with several buildings near the town hall as a hub for an illegal online gambling and scam outfit that catered mostly to clients in China, where gambling is forbidden.
A Senate committee ordered Guo arrested after she refused to appear in hearings looking into the illegal gambling business that flourished under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who nurtured cozy ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping while often criticizing the United States and European countries.
Guo has also been accused of concealing her Chinese nationality to run for public office, which is reserved for Filipino citizens only. At the time, a few senators suggested she may be working as a Chinese spy.
Guo has denied any wrongdoing but was dismissed from her post for grave misconduct by the Ombudsman, an agency that investigates and prosecutes government officials accused of crimes, including graft and corruption.
The crackdown on the Chinese-run online gambling outfits — estimated to number more than 400 across the Philippines and employing tens of thousands of Chinese and Southeast Asian nationals — was backed by Beijing.
It resulted in the shutdown in the Philippines of sprawling complexes, where authorities suspect thousands of Chinese, Vietnamese and other nationals mostly from Southeast Asia have been illegally recruited and forced to work in dismal conditions.
Philippine senators say the massive online gambling industry has flourished largely due to corruption in government regulatory agencies and big payoffs to officials.
Indonesia and the Philippines signed an extradition agreement in 1976.
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Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
TOKYO (AP) — One by one, the students, lawyers and others filed into a classroom in a central Tokyo university for a lecture by a Chinese journalist on Taiwan and democracy — taboo topics that can’t be discussed publicly back home in China.
“Taiwan’s modern-day democracy took struggle and bloodshed, there’s no question about that,” said Jia Jia, a columnist and guest lecturer at the University of Tokyo who was briefly detained in China eight years ago on suspicion of penning a call for China’s top leader to resign.
He is one of tens of thousands of intellectuals, investors and other Chinese who have relocated to Japan in recent years, part of a larger exodus of people from China.
Their backgrounds vary widely, and they’re leaving for all sorts of reasons. Some are very poor, others are very rich. Some leave for economic reasons, as opportunities dry up with the end of China’s boom. Some flee for personal reasons, as even limited freedoms are eroded.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of the China’s New Migrants package, a look by The Associated Press at the lives of the latest wave of Chinese emigrants to settle overseas.
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Chinese migrants are flowing to all corners of the world, from workers seeking to start businesses of their own in Mexico to burned-out students heading to Thailand. Those choosing Japan tend to be well-off or highly educated, drawn to the country’s ease of living, rich culture and immigration policies that favor highly skilled professionals, with less of the sharp anti-immigrant backlash sometimes seen in Western countries.
Jia initially intended to move to the U.S., not Japan. But after experiencing the coronavirus outbreak in China, he was anxious to leave and his American visa application was stuck in processing. So he chose Japan instead.
Chinese journalist Jia Jia talks with a friend at a bookstore in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Chinese journalist Jia Jia poses for a photo in front of a bookstore in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
“In the United States, illegal immigration is particularly controversial. When I went to Japan, I was a little surprised. I found that their immigration policy is actually more relaxed than I thought,” Jia told The Associated Press. “I found that Japan is better than the U.S.”
“The U.S. is shutting out those Chinese that are friendliest to them, that most share its values,” said Li Jinxing, a Christian human rights lawyer who moved to Japan in 2022.
Li sees parallels to about a century ago, when Chinese intellectuals such as Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, moved to Japan to study how the country modernized so quickly.
“On one hand, we hope to find inspiration and direction in history,” Li said of himself and like-minded Chinese in Japan. “On the other hand, we also want to observe what a democratic country with rule of law is like. We’re studying Japan. How does its economy work, its government work?”
Over the past decade, Tokyo has softened its once-rigid stance against immigration, driven by low birthrates and an aging population. Foreigners now make up about 2% of its population of 125 million. That’s expected to jump to 12% by 2070, according to the Tokyo-based National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
Chinese are the most numerous newcomers, at 822,000 last year among more than 3 million foreigners living in Japan, according to government data. That’s up from 762,000 a year ago and 649,000 a decade ago.
A sign in Chinese says ” I miss you in Ikebukuro” at Ikebukuro district, popular among Chinese living in Japan Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A canteen popular among Chinese living in Japan is seen Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A commuter rides past a billboard of a Sichuan restaurant, popular among Chinese living in Japan, is seen Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
In 2022, the lockdowns under China’s “zero COVID” policies led many of the country’s youth or most affluent citizens to hit the exits. There’s even a buzzword for that: “runxue,” using the English word “run” to evoke “running away” to places seen as safer and more prosperous.
For intellectuals like Li and Jia, Japan offers greater freedoms than under Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s increasingly repressive rule. But for others, such as wealthy investors and business people, Japan offers something else: property protections.
A report by investment migration firm Henley & Partners says nearly 14,000 millionaires left China last year, the most of any country in the world, with Japan a popular destination. A major driver is worries about the security of their wealth in China or Hong Kong, said Q. Edward Wang, a professor of Asian studies at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
“Protection of private property, which is the cornerstone of a capitalist society, that piece is missing in China,” Wang said.
The weakening yen makes buying property and other local assets in Japan a bargain.
Du first visited Japan when he was 26. There was no intention to relocate at the time, but the doors opened when he was invited to join the Tetsuya Kumakawa’s ballet company with his wife. AP video by Mayuko Ono
“If you are just going to Japan to preserve your money,” Wang said, “then definitely you will enjoy your time in Japan.”
Dot.com entrepreneurs are among those leaving China after Communist Party crackdowns on the technology industry, including billionaire Jack Ma, a founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, who took a professorship at Tokyo College, part of the prestigious University of Tokyo.
So many wealthy Chinese have bought apartments in Tokyo’s luxury high-rises that some areas have been dubbed “Chinatowns,” or “Digital Chinatowns” — a nod to the many owners’ work in high-tech industries.
“Life in Japan is good,” said Guo Yu, an engineer who retired early after working at ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
Guo doesn’t concern himself with politics. He’s keen on Japan’s powdery snow in the winter and is a “superfan” of its beautiful hot springs. He owns homes in Tokyo, as well as near a ski resort and a hot spring. He owns several cars, including a Porsche, a Mercedes, a Tesla and a Toyota.
Guo Yu, an engineer who retired early after working at ByteDance, the parent company of hit video-sharing app TikTok, and who lives in Japan, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tokyo, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Guo keeps busy with a new social media startup in Tokyo and a travel agency specializing in “onsen,” Japan’s hot springs. Most of his employees are Chinese, he said.
“It is crucial that Japan becomes an attractive country for foreign talent so they will choose to work here,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier this year, announcing efforts to relax Japan’s stringent immigration restrictions.
That kind of opportunity is exactly what Chinese ballet dancer Du Hai said he has found. Leading a class of a dozen Japanese students in a suburban Tokyo studio one recent weekend, Du demonstrated positions and spins to the women dressed in leotards and toe shoes.
Du Hai, center, a Chinese ballet dancer who has made Japan his home, is reflected on a mirror as he teaches a class at a studio in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Du Hai, center, a Chinese ballet dancer who has made Japan his home, teaches a class at a studio in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Du Hai, a Chinese ballet dancer who has made Japan his home, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, at a studio in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Du was drawn to Japan’s huge ballet scene, filled with professional troupes and talented dancers, he said, but worried about warnings he got about unfriendly Japanese.
That turned out to be false, he said with a laugh. Now, Du is considering getting Japanese citizenship.
“Of course, I enjoy living in Japan very much now,” he said.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Japan and Australia agreed on Thursday to increase joint military training exercises as their government ministers shared concerns over China’s recent incursions into Japanese airspace and territorial waters.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara met for a regular summit with their Australian counterparts, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defense Minister Richard Marles in the Australian coastal town of Queenscliff.
They discussed greater security cooperation in the context of the ministers’ shared support for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and concerns over China’s increasingly aggressive territorial claims in the South and East China Seas, Wong said.
The ministers agreed on more engagement in training exercises involving the two air forces after F-35A Lighting II stealth fighters from both countries joined in combat training over Japan last year in Exercise Bushido Guardian, Marles said.
Next year, Australia will participate for the first time in Orient Shield, the largest annual field training exercise between the U.S. Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
Australia and Japan also plan to involve the Japanese Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, a marine unit of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, in annual training rotations of U.S. Marines in the northern Australian city of Darwin.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Japan and Australia’s cooperation should not disadvantage any third country.
“China believes that defense and security cooperation between countries should be conducive to maintaining regional peace and stability and enhancing mutual trust among regional countries, and should not target third parties,” Mao said at a daily briefing in Beijing.
China’s increasingly assertive activity around Japanese waters and airspace has caused unease among Japanese defense officials, who are also concerned about the growing military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian air forces.
Japan lodged a formal protest through the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo against what it called an incursion by a Chinese survey ship in its waters last weekend.
This followed Tokyo’s protest after a Chinese military aircraft briefly entered Japan’s southwestern airspace on Aug. 26. It was the first time the Japan Self-Defense Forces detected a Chinese military aircraft in Japan’s airspace.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said later his country had “no intention” to violate any country’s airspace.
Kihara confirmed the incidents were discussed with the Australian counterparts.
“We have shared very strong concern over these incidents and, for the East China Sea and South China Sea, any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or by coercion, we have put forward our strong opposition,” Kihara told reporters through an interpreter.
Marles said he and Wong “did express our support for Japanese sovereignty in that moment.”
“It really underlined our shared commitment to asserting the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, in our neighborhood,” Marles said.
“The countries of the region and indeed the world want to be in a world where disputes are resolved not by power and might but by reference to international law,” Marles added.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that Malaysia will not bow to demands by China to stop its oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea as the activities are within the country’s waters.
Anwar said Malaysia would continue to explain its stance following China’s accusations in a protest note in February to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing that Kuala Lumpur had infringed on its territory. Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was investigating the leak of the diplomatic protest note that was published by a Filipino media outlet on Aug. 29.
“We have never intended in any way to be intentionally provocative, unnecessarily hostile. China is a great friend, but of course we have to operate in our waters and secure economic advantage, including drilling for oil in our territory,” Anwar said in a televised news conference from Russia, where he is on an official visit.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer published the diplomatic note in which Beijing reportedly demanded that Malaysia immediately halt all activities in an oil-rich maritime area off Sarawak state on Borneo island.
The report said China had accused Malaysia of encroaching on areas covered by its 10-dash line, Beijing’s controversial map showing its claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea. The diplomatic note also expressed Beijing’s displeasure over Malaysia’s oil and gas exploration activities near the Luconia Shoals, which is near to Sarawak, it said.
Anwar said it wasn’t the first time China had sent a protest note over the South China Sea dispute but stressed it shouldn’t mar a strong relationship. Anwar had called China a “true friend” during a visit to Malaysia by Chinese President Li Qiang in June to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties.
“We have said that we will not transgress other people’s borders,” Anwar said. “They know our position … They have claimed that we are infringing on their territory. That is not the case. We say no, it is our territory. But if they continue with the dispute, then okay, we will have to listen, and they will have to listen.”
Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan all dispute Beijing’s claims to almost the entire South China Sea. Unlike the Philippines which has had public clashes with China in the disputed area, Malaysia’s government prefers diplomatic channels. It rarely criticizes Beijing publicly, even though Chinese coast guard ships have sailed near Malaysia’s waters. This is partly to protect economic ties as China has been Malaysia’s top trading partner since 2009.
LONDON (AP) — The bosses of water companies that pollute waterways could go to prison under a new law the British government says will help clean up the country’s sewage-clogged rivers, lakes and beaches.
A bill introduced in Parliament on Thursday will give regulators the ability to ban bonuses for executives of polluting firms and bring criminal charges against lawbreakers, with the possibility of up to two years’ imprisonment for executives who obstruct investigations.
The state of Britain’s waterways made a stink during the campaign for a July 4 national election. For critics of the Conservative Party that had been in office since 2010, dirty water was a pungent symbol of Britain’s aging infrastructure and the effects of privatization of essential utilities.
The private companies that provide combined water and sewage services routinely discharge sewage into waterways when rain overwhelms sewer systems often dating from the Victorian era. Critics say the firms have failed to invest in upgrading infrastructure – but have continued to pay dividends to shareholders.
Water companies say they want to invest in upgrades but accuse the industry’s financial regulator, Ofwat, of not allowing them to raise customers’ bills enough to finance improvements.
The center-left Labour Party government elected in July has promised to clean up the “unacceptable” state of Britain’s waters.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed said that “water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth.”
The bill, which must be approved by lawmakers, also would strengthen powers of the regulators and force water companies to publish real-time data of all sewage spills.
Clean-water campaigner Feargal Sharkey said it was good news that “after years of denial at least there is a government prepared to accept and recognize the scale of the problem.”
But he said existing anti-pollution laws have rarely, if ever, been used.
“We don’t need new regulations, we don’t need new laws, we’ve got 35 years’ worth of laws that have never been applied,” Sharkey told Sky News. “You should force them to go out and apply the law as it stands today, that would have been a massive step forward.”
HONG KONG (AP) — School and work were suspended Thursday in parts of southern China as Typhoon Yagi closed in on an island province with the potential to be the most powerful storm to hit the area in a decade.
The Hong Kong Observatory raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system, on Thursday evening. It said the super typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 210 kilometers per hour (130 miles per hour), would skirt around 300 kilometers (190 miles) southwest of the financial hub on Friday morning.
Kindergartens, special schools and evening classes were already canceled in the semi-autonomous city while the weather remained calm Thursday morning. The Education Bureau announced the city’s schools would be suspended on Friday to ensure students’ safety.
Dozens of flights were also canceled on Thursday and Friday in the city, with care centers for children and elderly residents closed. About 30 government-organized temporary shelters were opened to people in need.
The observatory said the No.8 signal is expected to remain in force until at least Friday noon, meaning the city’s stock market will likely be closed on Friday.
China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said tens of thousands of fishing boats returned to ports in Hainan and elsewhere to seek shelter, along with nearly 70,000 fishers. State broadcaster CCTV said some train services were suspended, starting Thursday evening.
Hainan Meteorological Service forecast that the typhoon will make landfall Friday along the region from Qionghai in Hainan to Dianbai in neighboring Guangdong province. Meteorological authorities said it could be the strongest typhoon to hit Hainan in the past 10 years, Xinhua reported. The tropical island is a popular tourist destination known for its holiday resorts and duty-free shopping allowance.
In Guangdong, all coastal tourist attractions and beaches were ordered to close from Wednesday evening, with dozens of flights canceled at the airport in Zhuhai city, state media China Daily reported.
They treated me like a kid. It was so frustrating. I went in, they gave me an IV with a ******** of meds, then also an intramuscular epi pen. I felt better in an hour, but they made me stay for another 5. They legally couldn’t keep me there, but that didn’t matter I guess. Whatever, I’m happy to be home and not itchy.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro — already notorious for street muggings, corrupt politicians, ruthless militias and Kalashnikov-toting drug traffickers — has a new public enemy: plushies. Or, more specifically, the joystick-controlled claw machines that dispense them.
On Wednesday, Rio police carried out 16 search warrants targeting the machines that elicit exhilaration among children and adults alike. But police said the claw machines defraud users who believe scoring stuffed animals to be a test of skill. In fact, they are games of chance — just like slot machines — and therefore illegal, according to their press office.
Officers seized claw machines, laptops, tablets, cell phones, a firearm and — yes — furry friends. They are investigating whether organized crime groups may be the invisible hand behind the claw because they already run slot machines and a popular lottery known as “Animal Game” across the city. Police in Brazil’s southern Santa Catarina state carried out an additional three search warrants Wednesday as part of the same operation.
A claw machine sits inside a metro station in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The Rio police press office said they were carrying out search warrants targeting claw machines because they are considered games of chance and therefore illegal. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)
It marked the second such police crackdown, following another in May during which officers apprehended 80 machines. Not only were those machines stocked with counterfeit plushies, but subsequent analysis of their programming found winning pulls were permitted only after a set number of attempts, police said in their statement Wednesday. Facilitating such sporadic, successful snags is an electrical current to the otherwise enfeebled claw so it holds fast to its prize, the statement said.
That programming isn’t disclosed to naive users, including children liable to blow their pocket money on what’s effectively a crap shoot. Claw machines can be found in Rio’s shopping malls, subway stations, supermarkets, arcades and toy stores.
Among Rio’s claw aficionados is Alessandra Libonatti, 41, who has played for nearly three decades. She remembers the machines causing a stir when they first appeared in the city; she had only seen them before in movies. These days she tends to play once a week, whether alone or at the mall with friends who share her “peculiar” hobby.
She likes the low-investment adrenaline rush and, by her own account, she’s a talented clawmaster who has honed her techniques to maximize success, from scouting the stuffed animal landscape to precise positioning of the claw. She treasures a manatee with jaguar spots that she pulled in on a trip to the nation’s capital with friends.
“When I pass by a machine, I give it a look to see if there’s a stuffed animal that makes it worth it to play,” she told The Associated Press. “Because it’s not always worth it; sometimes it’s clearly a waste of money.”
A claw machine stands at a toy store in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)
Claw machines may have been feats of skill in decades past, but most modern machines have built-in programming allowing operators to predetermine their profitability, said Jeremy Hambly, a claw game aficionado from the Milwaukee area. His ClawStruck YouTube channel shows how many different models work, he previously told the AP. He said odds should be posted prominently on machines for users to review.
Most U.S. states consider claw machines games of chance and specifically exempt them from gambling statutes, as long as they comply with certain rules specific to those states. According to industry officials, it’s in arcades’ best interests to have customers win so they’ll keep playing.
But lately it’s tough going for Rio’s claw connoisseurs, Libonatti said. And she chalks that up to changes made to the machines that didn’t escape her exacting eye.
“The current machines are crap. The claws are weaker,” she wrote in a text message to a friend in April, reviewed by the AP.
“Amiga, yessssss!” her friend replied. “I went back to the machines where I always got (stuffed animals) in recent weeks and they’re soooooo weak!”
Local online media outlet G1 dubbed the phenomenon the “weak claw scam.”
The nearly 13,000 stuffed animals police detained in May were initially destined for destruction, but a request from state lawmakers found favor with a judge who spared them. Instead, police donated the plushies to families who lost their homes in the massive floods of southern Rio Grande do Sul state, particularly children in shelters.
The fate of the stuffed animals seized Wednesday was still unclear.
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Associated Press writer Bruce Shipkowski contributed from Trenton, New Jersey.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels have agreed to allow tugboats and rescue ships to assist a Greek-flagged oil tanker that remains ablaze in the Red Sea “in consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations claimed late Wednesday. However, the Houthis did not offer specific details and are believed to have blocked an earlier attempt to salvage the vessel and continue to attack shipping across the Red Sea.
Last week’s attack on the Sounion marked the most serious assault in weeks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who continue to target shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have disrupted the $1 trillion in trade that typically passes through the region, as well as halted some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.
Iran’s U.N. mission said Wednesday that following the fire on the Sounion “and the subsequent environmental hazards,” several countries it didn’t identify reached out to the Houthis “requesting a temporary truce for the entry of tugboats and rescue ships into the incident area.”
“Ansar Allah has consented to this,” the Iranian mission said, using another name for the Houthis. It offered no further details, nor did the Houthis, who have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea, detained aid workers, deployed child soldiers and cracked down on dissent since holding Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam, in comments carried by the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency, said late Wednesday that the attack showed how serious the rebels took their campaign against shipping.
“After several international parties contacted us, especially the European ones, they were allowed to tow the burning oil ship Sounion,” Abdul-Salam said, without giving further details.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that attempts by an unidentified “third party” to send two tugboats to the stricken Sounion were blocked by the Houthis. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that the Houthis’ actions demonstrate “their blatant disregard for not only human life, but also for the potential environmental catastrophe that this presents.”
Ryder said the Sounion appears to be leaking oil into the Red Sea, home to coral reefs and other natural habitats and wildlife. However, the European Union’s Operation Aspides, whose mission is to protect shipping in the area, said as recently as Wednesday the ship was not leaking oil.
The Houthis in their campaign have seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
In the case of the Sounion, the Houthis have claimed the Greek company operating the vessel had other ships serving Israel. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational organization overseen by the U.S. Navy, assessed that the Sounion “has no direct association with Israel, U.S. or U.K. within the company business structure” though other ships had “visited Israel in the recent past.”
