Prosecutors: New Mexico candidate is a danger to community
Prosecutors say a failed GOP candidate accused of orchestrating a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of Democratic elected officials in New Mexico’s largest city is a danger to the community and should be detained pending trial. They filed a motion Wednesday, asking that Solomon Peña be held without bond. A judge will decide in the coming weeks on whether to grant the request. The 39-year-old Peña made his initial court appearance Wednesday on charges that include multiple counts including shooting at a home, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
US divided over Roe’s repeal as abortion foes gird for march
Anti-abortion activists will have multiple reasons to celebrate — and some reasons for unease — when they gather Friday in Washington for the annual March for Life. The march has been held since January 1974 — a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision established a nationwide right to abortion. This year’s gathering will be the first since the high court struck down Roe in a momentous ruling last June. Since then, 12 Republican-governed states have implemented sweeping bans on abortion. But in the same period, abortion opponents were defeated in votes on ballot measures in Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky. And state courts have blocked several abortion bans from taking effect.
Jacinda Ardern to step down as New Zealand prime minister
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will not contest this year’s general elections. Fighting back tears, Ardern told reporters in Napier that Feb. 7 will be her last day as the country’s leader. Ardern had faced a difficult general election campaign this year. Ardern said she is not leaving because the job was difficult, but “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice.” Her liberal Labour Party won reelection two years ago in a landslide of historic proportions, but recent polls have put her party behind its conservative rivals.
Ukraine helicopter crash kills interior minister, others
Authorities say a helicopter carrying Ukraine’s interior minister and other government officials crashed into a kindergarten in suburban Kyiv, killing him and about a dozen other people, including a child on the ground. Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi oversaw Ukraine’s police and emergency services and is the most senior official to die since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago. There was no immediate word on whether the crash, which came on a foggy morning, was an accident or war-related. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said the crash had a broad connection to the conflict, adding: “The war has many dimensions, not just on the battlefields.”
Cohen meets Trump prosecutors amid renewed hush money probe
Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen says he met Tuesday for about 2½ hours with Manhattan prosecutors, who are again investigating hush money payments he made to a porn star who said she had an extramarital affair with the former president. Cohen’s meeting came just days after District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office’s yearslong Trump investigation was moving to the “next chapter” following last week’s sentencing of Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, for tax fraud. A message seeking comment was left with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Job cuts in tech sector spread, Microsoft lays off 10,000
Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, as it joins other tech companies in a scaling back of their pandemic-era expansions. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” The company said it will also be making changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidating its leased office locations. The loss of employees is far less than how many Microsoft hired during the COVID-19 pandemic as it responded to a boom in demand for its workplace software and cloud computing services as people worked and studied from home.
US, Chinese officials discuss climate, economy, relationship
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has met with her Chinese counterpart and pledged an effort to manage differences and “prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict.” The sit-down Wednesday in Zurich is the highest-ranking contact between the two countries since their presidents in November agreed to look for ways to ease strained relations. Yellen’s first face-to-face meeting with Vice Premier Liu He comes as the U.S. and Chinese economies grapple with differing but intertwined challenges on trade, technology and more. A U.S. Treasury readout of their meeting says the two agreed the U.S. and China would cooperate more on issues around financing for battling climate change.
World’s oldest known person, a French nun, dies at 118
A French nun who was believed to be the world’s oldest person has died shortly before her 119th birthday. The spokesperson for her nursing home in southern France, David Tavella, said she died in her sleep early Tuesday.Lucile Randon, known as Sister André, was born in the town of Ales, southern France, on Feb. 11, 1904. She was also one of the world’s oldest survivors of COVID-19. Sister André tested positive for the coronavirus in January 2021, a few weeks before her 117th birthday, but she had so few symptoms that she didn’t even realize she was infected. Her survival made headlines both in France and beyond.
By wire sources