Downtown Milwaukee's newest hotel, Kinn MKE Guesthouse, is to open in March. We got a sneak peek.

AFP
Despite truce, Lebanese from devastated Naqura cannot go home
All signs of life have disappeared from the bombed-out houses and empty streets of the Lebanese border town of Naqura, but despite a fragile Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire that has held since November, no one can return.Empty, damaged houses line streets filled with rubble.
AFP
Indonesia, France to sign deal to transfer Frenchman on death row
Indonesia and France will sign an agreement Friday for the transfer of a Frenchman who has languished on death row since 2007 for alleged drug offences, an Indonesian minister told AFP. Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mum on death row and the last five members of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug ring.Indonesian officials have called a press conference with their French counterparts to announce the transfer agreement for Serge Atlaoui
NBC News
Unredacted affidavit contains previously unreported allegation about Pete Hegseth's behavior toward second wife
Hegseth has denied all allegations in the affidavit, which was written by his former sister-in-law.
Associated Press
Indonesia showcases returned artifacts it had sought for decades from the Netherlands
Centuries-old stone Buddha statues and precious jewelries repatriated by the Dutch government to its former colony are on display at Indonesia's National Museum, providing a glimpse into the country's rich heritage that the government had struggled to retrieve. The collection is part of more than 800 artifacts that were returned under a Repatriation Agreement signed in 2022 between Indonesia and the Netherlands, said Gunawan, the museum's head of cultural heritage. The objects are not just those looted in conflict, but also seized by scientists and missionaries or smuggled by mercenaries during the four centuries of colonial rule.
AFP
Tax change sows anger on England farms
In a field in southwest England where his dairy cows graze, Adam Stanbury said he feared the government's new farm tax, coupled with existing economic headwinds, will ruin his family business and many others. - 'Unfair' - All of which has left Stanbury wondering: "What happens when we do have to sell bits of land off, or the whole farm off, to pay an inheritance tax -- where's that land going to go?
NBC News
AI weapon detection system at Antioch High School failed to detect gun in Nashville shooting
An artificial intelligence-powered weapon detection system failed to pick up the handgun a 17-year-old Nashville, Tennessee, student used in a school shooting Wednesday that killed a 16-year-old girl, officials said.
AFP
'I rip out my lashes to ease pain': Eye disease afflicts Ethiopia
Scheicho Scheifa is haunted by the fear of going blind. "The fear of going blind worries me whenever the pain strikes."
NBC News
Trump birthright citizenship order could leave U.S.-born babies of asylum-seekers 'stateless,' attorneys say
The situation could be particularly complicated for asylum-seekers from countries like Venezuela, which doesn't have diplomatic ties with the U.S.
Time
All Those Presidential Pardons Give Mercy a Bad Name
Trump and Biden have recently handed out thousands of pardons and commutations.
CNN
Fire-ravaged Southern California grapples with new infernos this week as much-needed rain could unleash more deadly hazards
Exhausted firefighters battling deadly infernos for weeks are now grappling with more wildfires torching Southern California – including one that’s threatening 14,000 structures.
AFP
Survivors strive to ensure young do not forget Auschwitz
On a frosty Polish winter evening, 96-year-old Esther Senot told the 100 or so shivering students at Auschwitz-Birkenau how she was a teenager much like them when she was first brought to the Nazi death camp on September 2, 1943.Senot said her older sister, so frail and gaunt she was barely recognisable, made her vow to pass on the memory of the camp, a macabre monument to Nazi Germany's genocide of the Jews.
AFP
Asian markets build on Trump rally, yen steady ahead of BoJ
Asian markets rose Friday after a record day on Wall Street in response to Donald Trump's tax-cut pledge, while the yen weakened slightly ahead of an expected interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan later in the day.Given this reality, we question if Trump's tariff posturing may now be aimed more at pressuring China and other foreign countries into negotiating favourable trade terms for the US." The yen was slightly down on the dollar, with a rate hike largely priced in when the Bank of Japan en
AFP
'Nerve-racking': Inside the aerial battle to tame Los Angeles fires
Helicopter pilot Tim Thomas has fought dozens of wildfires all over the world, but nothing prepared him for the scale and the challenge of the devastating blazes that ripped through Los Angeles.For the people of Los Angeles, the men and women who have fought this battle are second to none.
USA TODAY
'Terrifying': Monterey County declares emergency after massive lithium battery plant fire
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency following the massive blaze that has residents and officials concerned.
AFP
Ice in the sky: Thailand's fight against air pollution
Flying through Bangkok's cloudless blue skies, a small aircraft sprays a white mist over a thick haze of pea soup smog below.Thailand's worst smog happens during the dry season between December and April, when it is too windy and cloudless to induce precipitation.
AFP
Climate change cooks up Japanese 'cabbage shock'
Japan's much-loved "tonkatsu" pork cutlets come with a mound of freshly shredded cabbage, but a surge in the price of the humble vegetable has prompted chef Katsumi Shinagawa to skimp on servings.Chef Shinagawa does not want to pass on the price increases to his customers, however.
NBC News
U.S. Capitol Police suspend officer who let visitor in with a gun
U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday said they suspended an officer who let a man with a gun into the Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday.
AFP
Smog chokes Baghdad as oil-fired factories belch out smoke
Iraqi grocery store owner Abu Amjad al-Zubaidi is grappling with asthma, a condition his doctor blames on emissions from a nearby power plant that fills his Baghdad neighbourhood with noxious smoke.But I don't smoke," Zubaidi told AFP. When his doctor finally realised that Zubaidi lived just metres from the Dora power plant in south Baghdad, he told him its emissions were the likely cause of his asthma.
Associated Press
Utah Republicans take aim at teachers unions amid political clash over education
Utah lawmakers advanced a bill Thursday that experts say would establish one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country as Republicans seek to curb the political influence of unions serving teachers and other public service professionals. The GOP proposal would ban collective bargaining across all of Utah's public sectors — education, transit, law enforcement and more. It would bar labor unions from negotiating on behalf of workers for better wages and working conditions.
NBC News
A man, a plan, a canal: Rubio's first trip as secretary of state will take him to Panama
Panama will be one of the first stops for new Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he heads overseas late next week

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