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PRAGUE (AP) — Czech voters began casting ballots Friday in a two-day general election that could steer the country away from supporting Ukraine and toward Hungary and Slovakia, threatening to further divide the European Union and NATO.Billionaire Andrej Babiš is predicted to be the latest populist leader in Central Europe to stage a political comeback. Opinion polls put the former prime minister on course for victory over a pro-Western coalition led by Petr Fiala that defeated him in the 2021 ballot.His victory would be a boost for Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Robert Fico of Slovakia, whose countries have refused…

Antony has said he felt a “lack of respect” at the end of his time at Manchester United before his move to Real Betis.The Brazil international joined Betis on loan last season before completing a €22 million ($25.6m) permanent move in the summer.In between returning to United and re-joining Betis, Antony was forced to train away from teammates by Ruben Amorim and was not included in the squad for the club’s preseason tour.”Look, I’m not the kind of guy who gets involved in controversies, who names people, in fact, I won’t mention anyone’s name here,” Antony told ESPN Brasil.Antony spent…

CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, the White House budget director said Friday, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas during the government shutdown.The pause affects a long-awaited plan to extend the city’s Red Line train. The money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” budget director Russ Vought wrote on social media.Vought made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where he said $18 billion for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.Trump,…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.N. food agency announced on Friday that it is cutting food assistance for hundreds of thousands of people in Somalia, where millions are facing devastating effects of climate change and acute levels of hunger.The World Food Program said the number of people receiving emergency food assistance in the country will decrease from 1.1 million in August to 350,000 in November due to “critical funding shortfalls.”“We are seeing a dangerous rise in emergency levels of hunger, and our ability to respond is shrinking by the day,” said Ross Smith, the agency’s director of emergency preparedness and…

Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden have been left out of Thomas Tuchel’s latest England squad for games against Wales and Latvia.Bellingham made his first appearance of the season on Sept. 20 following shoulder surgery and has featured in Real Madrid’s last four matches.Although the 22-year-old has only made one start in that time, his omission is still something of a surprise given Bellingham’s status within the team and Tuchel repeatedly stressing the lack of time he has to work with his players before next summer’s World Cup finals.Jude Bellingham’s last England appearance came against Senegal in June. Eddie Keogh – The…

China’s leap to field a prototype “Golden Dome” missile shield before the US has finalized its own design signals a new phase in the rivals’ arms race, where the drive for security threatens to heighten nuclear risk. Last month, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that China had fielded a working prototype of a “Golden Dome”-style global missile defense system before the US had finalized its own plans, underscoring a widening technological gap in strategic defense. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), led by senior engineer Li Xudong of the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, has deployed a “distributed…

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Bangkok on Friday sentenced a Thai man who shot and killed an opposition politician from Cambodia to life in prison. The January shooting in Thailand’s capital was widely seen as a political assassination but the suspect’s motives were never fully revealed.Lim Kimya, a former lawmaker from the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, was fatally shot on Jan. 7 in broad daylight near Bangkok’s Khaosan Road, a neighborhood popular with backpacking tourists.The gunman, who fled the scene and made his way across the border to Cambodia, was identified as Ekkalak Pheanoi. He was arrested and…

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Bangkok on Friday sentenced a Thai man who shot and killed an opposition politician from Cambodia to life in prison. The January shooting in Thailand’s capital was widely seen as a political assassination but the suspect’s motives were never fully revealed.Lim Kimya, a former lawmaker from the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, was fatally shot on Jan. 7 in broad daylight near Bangkok’s Khaosan Road, a neighborhood popular with backpacking tourists.The gunman, who fled the scene and made his way across the border to Cambodia, was identified as Ekkalak Pheanoi. He was arrested and…

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week.The awards are considered among the world’s most prestigious honors for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics and peace.The winners will join the pantheon of Nobel laureates, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa.For the peace prize, U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forth in December by a Republican congresswoman for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states.Here are some things…

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — A fire broke out at a Chevron oil refinery just outside Los Angeles on Thursday night, sending towering flames into the air that were visible for miles. Officials in El Segundo, California, urged people to stay indoors. In a statement issued about 30 minutes after the flames began, they said there was no immediate threat to public safety and no evacuations had been ordered.There were no injuries at the Chevron El Segundo Refinery and all personnel were accounted for, the company said in a statement late Thursday, adding that a monitoring system indicated the fire…