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As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Douglas Guzmán’s TikTok feed was dotted with workout routines and videos showcasing his favorite parts of his country. That changed about a year ago, as rights groups, civil society and even some officials criticized El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for violating human rights in his crackdown on criminal gangs, and said that his unconstitutional bid for re-election would corrode the country’s democracy.Within days of Bukele announcing his bid for a second five-year term, Guzmán’s feed was plastered with videos describing Bukele as the “future liberator of Latin America” and slick montages of the leader’s “mega-prison” for accused gangsters. Views on the social media influencer’s videos skyrocketed. The 39-year-old member of Bukele’s party said he found a new mission: counteracting negative press from independent media about his populist president.“(Journalists) don’t know anything. All they do is sit at their desks and watch as ...

Lifeless Rockies’ offense falters again against red-hot Dodgers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

Solid starting pitching? Check.Good defense? Check.Productive offense? Next question, please.You guessed it, the Rockies lost at Dodger Stadium, again, falling 4-1 on Saturday night in Los Angeles.The red-hot Dodgers, winners of a season-high seven consecutive games, own a 29-9 record against the Rockies in L.A. since 2019.The Rockies managed just three hits and were dominated by right-hander Tony Gonsolin, who gave up one run on three hits, struck out six and walked none over his six innings of work. In eight career games (seven starts) vs. Colorado, Gonsolin is 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA, 46 strikeouts and five walks.Colorado was helpless against the Dodgers’ bullpen, and closer Evan Phillips notched his 17th save by striking out the side in the ninth. After striking out 16 times Friday night, the Rockies fanned 11 times Saturday.“Recently, our offense has been our problem,” manager Bud Black told reporters in Los Angeles. “We have to get a little more offense ...

1 killed, 1 injured in deadly shooting, DC police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

Emergency vehicle lights flashing, police car inspecting city, security service(Getty Images/iStockphoto/Motortion) Emergency vehicle lights flashing, police car inspecting city, security service(Getty Images/iStockphoto/Motortion) D.C. police said one man has died and another has been seriously injured after a shooting in Northeast late Saturday.Officers responded to reports of a shooting at a BP Gas Station in the 1500 block of Kenilworth Avenue in Northeast at about 11 p.m.Preliminarily, one victim appears to have died at the scene of the shooting. Another person injured in the shooting has been taken to a local hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries.Police have not identified any suspects in the shoo...

Stetson Bennett gets his first NFL action for the Rams in a 34-17 preseason loss to the Chargers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Stetson Bennett passed for 191 yards and a touchdown for the Los Angeles Rams in the stadium where he led Georgia to his second national championship seven months ago, getting his first NFL action in a 34-17 preseason loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night.Former TCU quarterback Max Duggan passed for 19 yards and rushed for 20 yards for the Chargers as both quarterbacks got their first NFL action at SoFi Stadium, where Bennett’s Bulldogs routed Duggan’s Horned Frogs 65-7 in the College Football Playoff title game.Both quarterbacks are vying for backup jobs with Los Angeles’ two NFL teams, but Bennett’s debut was much busier.Bennett entered the game early in the second quarter and immediately led a 16-play, 75-yard drive that included three near-interceptions and a sharp 11-yard touchdown pass to fellow rookie Puka Nacua.Bennett led two more scoring drives after halftime, finishing 17 for 29 with no interceptions.While Dugg...

Fiction writers fear the rise of AI, but also see it as a story to tell

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For a vast number of book writers, artificial intelligence is a threat to their livelihood and the very idea of creativity. More than 10,000 of them endorsed an open letter from the Authors Guild this summer, urging AI companies not to use copyrighted work without permission or compensation.At the same time, AI is a story to tell, and no longer just in science fiction. As present in the imagination as politics, the pandemic or climate change, AI has become part of the narrative for a growing number of novelists and short story writers who only need to follow the news to imagine a world upended.“I’m frightened by artificial intelligence, but also fascinated by it. There’s a hope for divine understanding, for the accumulation of all knowledge, but at the same time there’s an inherent terror in being replaced by non-human intelligence,” said Helen Phillips, whose upcoming novel “Hum” tells of a wife and mother who loses her job to AI.“We’ve...

Lawsuit targets Wisconsin legislative districts resembling Swiss cheese

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — If Wisconsin state Rep. Jimmy Anderson wants to visit residents in some of the northern neighborhoods he represents, he first must leave his own district — twice.From his Fitchburg home in suburban Madison, Anderson must exit his 47th Assembly District, pass through the 77th District, reenter the 47th District, then head north through the 48th District to finally reach a cluster of homes assigned like a remote outpost to his district. Unusual? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Unconstitutional? Perhaps. Though the Wisconsin Constitution requires legislative districts “to consist of contiguous territory,” many nonetheless contain sections of land that are not actually connected. The resulting map looks a bit like Swiss cheese, where some districts are dotted with small neighborhood holes assigned to different representatives. Wisconsin’s nationally peculiar practice of detached districts is cited as one of several alleged violations in a recent lawsuit seeking to str...

Southern California hiker falls to death in Grand Teton National Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

A Southern California woman fell to her death while hiking a steep, craggy peak in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on Friday.Park rangers say Joy Cho of Simi Valley was hiking with seven other people when she fell off the west side of Teewinot Mountain in the early morning. She died at the scene, and her body was flown from the area by helicopter.National Park Service officials did not say how old Cho was, what caused her to fall or how far she fell.Teewinot, a popular destination for mountaineers, is an exposed peak that reaches 12,325 feet (3,757 meters) above sea level.

A’s fall again as Nationals win on Ruiz’s walkoff home run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

WASHINGTON  — Keibert Ruiz hit the first pitch of bottom of the ninth inning into the right-field bullpen to give the Washington Nationals a 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.JJ Bleday and Brent Rooker homered and rookie Lawrence Butler got his first big-league hit for Oakland, which fell to a majors-worst 33-84. The Athletics are 51 games under .500 for the first time since finishing 54-108 in 1979. They are on pace to go 46-116.Ruiz homered for the second consecutive night to help Washington win for the seventh time in its last 10 — and 11th victory in the last 13 home games.Lucas Erceg (2-3) had just entered and threw a 97 mph that Ruiz smacked into the Nationals’ bullpen.Kyle Finnegan (6-3) pitched a scoreless ninth for Washington.For the second consecutive night, there were chants of “Sell the team! Sell the team!” in the top of the fifth inning, a message directed at Athletics owner John Fisher, who plans to move the franchise to Las Vegas. The A’s...

Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers beat his former Giants again, 9-3

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A day after his call-up, J.P. Martínez got in on the offensive onslaught with his first major league hit and a sacrifice fly as the Texas Rangers won another game in impressive fashion against manager Bruce Bochy’s former club.Bochy kept the special souvenir baseball safe in his office to present Martínez.“I’m so happy right now I can’t explain how I feel,” Martínez said, thrilled with his teammates’ support. “It was crazy, ‘congratulations, proud of you!’ It was amazing.”Corey Seager homered and singled in a run, Mitch Garver had three RBIs, and the Rangers pounded the stumbling San Francisco Giants 9-3 on Saturday night.Garver hit a go-ahead single in the Rangers’ three-run fourth as Texas began the inning with four straight base hits against Alex Cobb (6-4). That included the first career hit for Martínez. Ezequiel Durán added a sacrifice fly and Leody Taveras an RBI single in the inning.Garver later added a two-run single....

AP gets rare glimpse of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper publisher and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, spends around 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility while he awaits a trial that could send him to prison for life.In exclusive photos taken by The Associated Press in recent weeks, the 75-year-old Lai can be seen with a book in his hands wearing shorts and sandals and accompanied by two guards at Stanley Prison. He looks thinner than when he was last photographed in February 2021.Lai is allowed out for 50 minutes a day to exercise. Unlike most other inmates, who play football or exercise in groups, Lai walks alone in what appears to be a 5-by-10-meter (16-by-30-foot) enclosure surrounded by barbed wire under Hong Kong’s punishing summer sun before returning to his unairconditioned cell in the prison.The publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, Lai disappeared from public view in December 2020 following his arrest under a ...