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Spain’s turmoil is in the past as La Roja face Sweden in the Women’s World Cup semifinal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Spain is just one win away from the Women’s World Cup final, less than a year after more than a dozen players staged a mutiny and stepped away from the team. La Roja will face Sweden in a semifinal match on Tuesday at Auckland’s Eden Park, with the winner advancing to play either England or co-host Australia in the championship match. It is just the third time Spain has played in the tournament and the furthest it has advanced. La Roja reached the knockout round four years ago in France but they were eliminated by the eventual champion U.S. team. The only other time Spain has reached the final four at a major tournament was the 1997 Euros.Spain’s success this time comes despite a turbulent recent history. Last September, 15 players signed letters that said they were withdrawing from the national team to protect their emotional health and called on the Spanish federation to commit to a more professional environment. The players insisted ...

Indigenous communities are embraced at the Women’s World Cup, but will the legacy live on?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — More than any previous tournament, the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand has leaned into both including and showcasing the Indigenous cultures of both nations.For some Indigenous groups, though, there’s not enough commitment to a more lasting legacy. This Women’s World Cup was the first hosted by two countries. FIFA, led by a panel of six Indigenous women, worked with both countries to make sure the Australia’s First Nations and New Zealand’s Maori cultures were included. For the first time at a World Cup, all of the nine host cities were referred to in both English and Indigenous terms in the FIFA materials surrounding the event, including website content, signage and broadcasts.Soccer organizers in Australia and New Zealand successfully pushed to have Indigenous flags flying at stadiums. In New Zealand a traditional karanga call was performed ahead of each match, while in Australia the pre-game ceremonies incl...

Heavy rains trigger floods and landslides in India’s Himalayan region, leaving at least 16 dead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Heavy monsoon rains triggered floods and landslides in India’s Himalayan region, leaving at least 16 people dead and many others trapped, officials said Monday. A cloudburst in the mountainous Himachal Pradesh state’s Solan district on Sunday night killed seven people, and nine more bodies were pulled out from under mud and debris after two landslides in Shimla, the state’s capital, said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on X, the social media platform formerly known as X.State authorities were assisting impacted families and rescuers were working to clear the debris and help those still trapped, he added.Cloudbursts are a common occurrence in Himalayan regions, but experts say they are alarmed by the increase in extreme weather-related events in the area. Cloudbursts occur when more than 10 centimeters (3.94 inches) of rainfall occurs within 10 square kilometers (3.86 square miles) within an hour. They have the potential to cause intense flood...

Pakistan’s caretaker premier is to be sworn in as people celebrate Independence Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar is to be sworn in Monday as Pakistan’s prime minister to head a caretaker national government that will oversee parliamentary elections.Kakar, who is comparatively new to politics, has been representing his Baluchistan province in the Senate since 2018.On Sunday, Kakar quit as the head of his small Baluchistan Awami Party and quit as a senator after being named by outgoing premier Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader Raza Riaz to oversee the vote and run the day-to-day affairs of the government until the people elect a new government. It is normal practice in Pakistan to appoint a caretaker administration for the election period.Under the constitution, the election should take place in the next 90 days.The swearing-in is taking place as Pakistanis celebrate the country’s 76th Independence Day. But the day comes amid a deepening political turmoil, which started after the removal of former premier Imran Khan from power last year. Pakistan gai...

Chinese Defense Minister Li to visit Russia and Belarus in show of support despite West’s objections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu is visiting Russia and Belarus in a show of support for those nations which the West has sought to isolate over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Li departed Monday on the six-day trip, during which he will deliver an address at the Moscow Conference on International Security and meet with defense leaders from Russia and other nations, the Defense Ministry said on its social media account, citing spokesperson Col. Wu Qian. Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov is due to speak at the conference on the topic of the “Majority World countries’ search for ways to development outside Western mechanisms, including strengthening multilateral associations of a new type,” Russia’s official TASS news agency reported. It said representatives from about 100 countries and eight international organizations had been invited to attend. The would “discuss various aspects of security in the conditions of the establishment of a mul...

South Africa’s unemployment is a ‘ticking time bomb.’ Anger rises with millions jobless

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — As Lebohang Mphuthi works amid the chaos of boisterous children during a lunch break at the Omar H.S. Ebrahim elementary school in South Africa — the kids are pushing, shoving and spilling food everywhere — she can’t help but think how this is as far from her dream job as it can get.Four years after graduating with a degree in analytical chemistry, the only work the 26-year-old has found is as a student assistant at a public school in Pretoria. Her responsibilities include handing out meals to the children and limiting the chaos as best she can.Mphuthi’s story mirrors those of so many young South African graduates sitting at home jobless or trying to make ends meet doing fairly menial jobs in a country with a 33% official unemployment rate. It’s a figure badly at odds with the status of a nation meant to embody the aspirations of Africa and the developing world.“It is demotivating and frustrating,” Mphuthi said of her battle to make progress. “Y...

Far-right populist Javier Milei is the biggest vote-getter in Argentina’s presidential primary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Far-right populist Javier Milei rocked Argentina’s political establishment Sunday by emerging as the biggest vote-getter in primary elections to choose presidential candidates for the October general election in a nation battered by economic woes.Milei, an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, says Argentina’s Central Bank should be abolished, thinks climate change is a lie, characterizes sex education as a ploy to destroy the family, believes the sale of human organs should be legal and wants to make it easier to own handguns.Votes were still being counted late Sunday, but analysts agreed that the upstart candidate who gained notoriety — and a rockstar-like following — by angrily ranting against the “political caste” did much better than expected and is a real contender for the presidency in this South American country.With around 92% of polling locations reporting, Milei had around 30% of the total vote, according to official results. The ca...

Candidate registrations for Iran’s parliamentary elections hit record high

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A record number of people registered to become candidates in Iran’s parliamentary elections scheduled for March, the Interior Ministry said Monday.The elections will be the first since nationwide protests rocked the country last year.Nearly 49,000 people filed paperwork seeking to run as candidates during a one-week registration period that ended on Sunday, the ministry website said.That number is more than three times the 16,000 registrations filed in the last election in 2020, when voter turnout was its lowest since 1979, with just over 42% of eligible voters casting ballots.There were no details on the registration of prominent political figures or pro-reform groups. The increase in filings was seen as a result of an easy online registration process.Some 14% of submissions were from women, an increase from 12% in 2020. About 250 current members of the 290-seat parliament also registered.Authorities in the coming weeks will verify the documents filed by w...

Iran arrests 9 members of Baha’i faith on charges of smuggling medicine and financial wrongdoing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s intelligence ministry arrested nine members of the Baha’i faith on charges of smuggling medicine and financial wrongdoing, state media reported on Monday.State IRAN newspaper said the arrested people, mostly members of one family, had roles in smuggling medicine though a network of dozens of pharmacies. It said they bribed medics to send clients to the pharmacies and were involved in money laundering and tax evasion.Iran bans the Baha’i religion, which was founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by his followers, and from time to time has arrested and prosecuted members of the faith on spying and security charges.Muslims consider the Prophet Muhammad the highest and last prophet.In 2013, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, urged Iranians to avoid all dealings with the Baha’i. Khamenei’s fatwa, or religious order, supported similar fatwas in the past by other clerics.In 2022, authorities arrest...

Recent graduates: New high in employment in 2022

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:37 GMT

In 2022, 82% of recent graduates (ISCED 2011 levels 3-8) aged 20-34 in the EU were employed. From 2014 to 2022, the employment rate for this group rose by 7 percentage points (pp), showing a consistent rising trend interrupted only by the COVID-19 pandemic.The employment rate in 2022 marked a new peak, surpassing the previous high of 81% achieved in 2018, a rate that had remained unchanged in 2019.Source dataset: edat_lfse_24The employment rate for recent male graduates has consistently been higher than that for recent female graduates. However, in 2022, the gap was narrowed down to 2 pp, marking the smallest disparity recorded in the eight-year span from 2014 to 2022. Meanwhile, the largest disparity between 2014 and 2022 was recorded in 2019 (4 pp). The disparities in employment rates may be explained by the nature of the fields studied, as there are differences in labour market demand. Women and men tend to study different fields - for example, a higher proportion of science...