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Chinese livestreamers set their sights on TikTok sales to shoppers in the US and Europe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese livestreamers have set their sights on TikTok shoppers in the U.S. and Europe, hawking everything from bags and apparel to crystals with their eyes on a potentially lucrative market, despite uncertainties over the platform’s future in the U.S. and elsewhere.In China, where livestreaming ecommerce is forecast to reach 4.9 trillion yuan ($676 billion) by the year’s end, popular hosts like “Lipstick King” Austin Li rack up tens of millions of dollars in sales during a single livestream. Many brands, including L’Oreal, Nike and Louis Vuitton, have begun using livestreaming to reach more shoppers.But the highly-competitive livestreaming market in China has led some hosts to look to Western markets to carve out niches for themselves. Oreo Deng, a former English tutor, sells jewelry to U.S. customers by livestreaming on TikTok, delivering her sales pitches in English for about four to six hours a day. “I wanted to try livestreaming on TikTok becau...

Officials see promise in a South Carolina prison unit where ‘restorative justice’ has boosted safety

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

TURBEVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina prison unit where older men with lengthier sentences mentor young adults preparing to reenter society is giving officials hope that a different approach to living conditions will reduce violence behind bars.The special housing facility known as a Community Opportunity Restoration Enhancement (C.O.R.E.) unit emphasizes an unorthodox method of prisoner reform called “restorative justice” that prioritizes open communication and self-correction through group engagement and one-on-one meetings.That atmosphere resulted in fewer violent incidents, according to a study of the units inside two state detention centers by the Vera Institute of Justice. Even more, participants who inhabit the unit that features walls covered in colorful murals and natural light commended the new initiative for allowing greater freedom in personalizing their spaces and developing trusting relationships alongside correctional officers.“These guys need to be able to let loo...

Voting fraud claims spread ahead of Spanish election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days before Spain holds a pivotal election, misleading claims about mail ballots and election fraud are spreading on social media and casting doubts about the results even before the votes have been counted. The allegations, amplified by supporters of the center-right Popular Party and the far-right Vox Party, bear striking similarities to the baseless claims spread by then-President Donald Trump ahead of his 2020 U.S. election defeat, and offer a reminder that the distrust of elections that has marred U.S. politics has taken root in Europe, too.Sunday’s general election could tilt Spain in favor of the populist right, as the Popular Party looks to take power away from the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party and its far-left coalition partner, Unidas Podemos (“United We Can”).Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election after his left-leaning coalition lost big in this year’s local and regional elections that were also marked by...

Israeli president’s speech to Congress highlights ‘unbreakable bond’ despite US unease

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel’s figurehead president speaks to Congress in an appearance Wednesday aimed at demonstrating what he calls the “unbreakable bond” between Israel and the United States, despite U.S. concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul and ongoing settlement construction in the West Bank.Isaac Herzog becomes the second Israeli president, after his father, Chaim Herzog, to address Congress. His speech will mark modern Israel’s celebration of its 75th year. But the Israeli president’s visit also is exposing the difficulties that Democrats face in balancing longstanding U.S. support for ally Israel with disapproval of some actions by Netanyahu’s government, a coalition of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties.The House on Tuesday passed a Republican-led resolution reaffirming its support for Israel with strong bipartisan approval — an implicit rebuke of a leading Democrat who, over the weekend, called the country a “r...

IRS whistleblowers to testify to Congress as they claim ‘slow-walking’ of Hunter Biden case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Whistleblowers claiming the Justice Department improperly interfered with a yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden will testify before Congress on Wednesday as House Republicans accelerate their probes into the president and his family.Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees will lead a hearing with two Internal Revenue Service employees — Greg Shapley and an as-yet-unnamed “whistleblower x” — who claim there was a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including delayed enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.It will be the first public testimony from the two IRS agents assigned to the federal case into President Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, which was focused on tax and gun charges. The second agent, whose name was withheld in interview transcripts released by Republicans, is expected to have his identity revealed at the hearing.The congression...

A key part of Biden’s strategy to control immigration at the US-Mexico border gets a court hearing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge will hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit opposing an asylum rule that is a key part of the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Critics say the rule endangers migrants trying to cross the southern border and is against the law, while the administration argues that it encourages migrants to use lawful pathways into the U.S. and prevents chaos at the southern border.The new rule took effect May 11 with the expiration of a COVID-19 restriction known as Title 42 that had limited asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The new rule makes it extremely difficult for migrants who come directly to the southern border to get asylum unless they use a government app to get an appointment or they’ve already tried to seek protection in another country before coming to the U.S. It includes room for exceptions and would not apply to children traveling alone.The lawsuit threatens to undermine a key tool that President Joe Biden’s administration has relied on...

DeSantis fights to reset his stagnant campaign as Trump dominates the 2024 conversation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For Ron DeSantis, it was supposed to be an important opportunity to help reset his stagnant Republican presidential campaign. But yet again, the moment was overshadowed by Donald Trump.The former president’s new legal challenges dominated much of the day as DeSantis spoke at a brief press conference and sat for a highly anticipated interview designed to reassure anxious donors and primary voters alike that he’s still well-positioned to defeat Trump. And again, DeSantis offered mixed messages when asked about Trump, training his most aggressive criticism at federal law enforcement officials instead of his chief Republican rival, who could soon be charged over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.“We look at institutions, unfortunately, like our own FBI and Department of Justice, and we’ve seen the politicization of those institutions. We’ve seen them be weaponized against Americans,” DeSantis said. A few minutes later, he added a modest jab when ...

Honduras wants to build West’s only island prison colony and lock gangsters inside

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras plans to build the only island prison colony in the Western Hemisphere and send its most-feared gangsters there, tearing a page from neighboring El Salvador’s unforgiving approach to murder, robbery, rape and extortion.Honduras’s progressive president once promised to address gang violence through systemic reforms to governance and the criminal justice system. Now, President Xiomara Castro plans to build an isolated prison for 2,000 gang leaders on the Islas del Cisne archipelago 155 miles off the coast, part of a larger crackdown following the gang-related massacre of 46 women in one prison.Island prisons once were common across Latin America, with facilities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru. Deadly riots, brutal conditions and bold prison escapes captured filmmakers’ and authors’ imaginations before the last island prison closed in Mexico in 2019.In Honduras, authorities are betting that a...

Trump’s target letter suggests the sprawling US probe into the 2020 election is zeroing in on him

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A target letter sent to Donald Trump suggests that a sprawling Justice Department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election is zeroing in on him after more than a year of interviews with top aides to the former president and state officials from across the country.Federal prosecutors have cast a wide net, asking witnesses in recent months about a chaotic White House meeting that included discussion of seizing voting machines and about lawyers’ involvement in plans to block the transfer of power, according to people familiar with the probe. They’ve discussed with witnesses schemes by Trump associates to enlist slates of Republican fake electors in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden and interviewed state election officials who faced a pressure campaign over the election results in the days before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.It is unclear how much longer special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation will last, but its gravity was e...

Twins’ suddenly potent bats put the hurt on Mariners pitching in 10-3 victory

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:50 GMT

SEATTLE — Don’t look now, but the Minnesota Twins are hitting.This was the consensus issue with the Twins — anecdotally and statistically — when they stumbled into the all-star break with a three-game losing streak, a .232 team batting average and a half-game out of first place in the American League Central Division.With 71 games remaining and a division title firmly within its grasp, the team vowed to put together more good at-bats. The pitching, which featured one of the best starting rotations in the majors before the break, just had to continue apace.So far, so good.Alex Kirilloff went 3 for 4 with a triple, two-run home run and three runs scored, and rookie Edouard Julien went 3 for 5 with a home run and two runs scored, as the Twins beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-3, Tuesday in front of 28,141 at T-Mobile Park.Since starting a three-game series last Friday in Oakland, the Twins are hitting .301 with 11 home runs and averaging 6.6 runs a game. Not coincidentally, they’re 4...