• Jury in Ahmaud Aubery case to weigh dueling views if killing was a hate crime
• U.S. worries China’s authoritarian model offers challenge to democratic-led world
• After Olympics, concern that athletes may be bringing cybersecurity threats back home
• Tourists, business travelers return to Australia after lifting of draconian pandemic measures

Menelaos Hadjicostis

Cyprus Correspondent

The Associated Press

Advancing the Power of Facts

The Rundown

Biden-Putin meeting discussed as Ukraine war fears loom

MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. and Russian presidents have tentatively agreed to meet in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to stave Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as heavy shelling continued Monday in a conflict in eastern Ukraine that is feared will spark the…Read More

US virus cases, hospitalizations continue steady decline

Average daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are continuing to fall in the U.S., an indicator that the omicron variant’s hold is weakening across the country. Total confirmed cases reported Saturday barely exceeded 100,000, a sharp downturn f…Read More

Human rights? China won that Winter Olympics battle. Almost.

ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — When three-time Olympian Gus Kenworthy took the remarkable, perhaps even brave decision to speak out against “human rights atrocities” while still in China at the Winter Games, the self-proclaimed “loud and obnoxious” Br…Read More

As Kuwait cracks down, a battle erupts over women’s rights

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — It all started over yoga. When an instructor in Kuwait this month advertised a desert wellness yoga retreat, conservatives declared it an assault on Islam. Lawmakers and clerics thundered about the “danger” and depravity of wome…Read More

California tribe confronts crisis of missing, murdered women

YUROK RESERVATION, Calif. (AP) — The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California’s rugged Lost Coast. …Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

Was Arbery killing a hate crime? Jury to hear dueling views

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Before Ahmaud Arbery was chased by three white men in pickup trucks and fatally shot on a residential street, the trio had expressed hostility …Read More

50 years after Nixon visit, US-China ties as fraught as ever

BEIJING (AP) — At the height of the Cold War, U.S. President Richard Nixon flew into communist China’s center of power for a visit that, over time, would transform U.S…Read More

Australia welcomes back tourists with toy koalas, Tim Tams

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — International tourists and business travelers began arriving in Australia with few restrictions on Monday for the first time in almost two y…Read More

Russia to stage nuclear drills with Ukraine tensions high

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced massive drills of its nuclear forces Friday amid soaring East-West tensions, as the U.S. issued some of its starkest, most detail…Read More