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Rishi Sunak faces a prime minister’s greatest nemesis: Local radio interviews

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

LONDON — Wily local radio journalists dealt a mortal blow to Liz Truss — and even won an award for it. On Thursday it was Rishi Sunak’s turn.The U.K. prime minister faced a tough round of questions — on everything from transport to crumbling schools — Thursday as a clutch of plugged-in local radio hosts got their chance to grill him. It comes a year after his short-serving predecessor Truss stuttered her way through a car-crash round of local radio interviews. Some of those hosts even bagged a broadcasting award for their interrogation.The regional media round has become a fixture of the pre-party conference scene for a British prime minister, with Downing Street hoping to flood local media with the PM’s messages and show a government in touch with everyday concerns.But as Sunak prepares to face his party diehards at Tory conference this weekend, he’s facing intense scrutiny over the fate of High Speed 2, a long-planned rail line that has been rolled back from its ...

EU wants defense upgrade to resist Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

The EU is set to boost its defense capabilities to counter Russia amid a threatening global environment, according to a draft summit declaration seen by POLITICO.“We will strengthen our defense readiness and develop the European defense technological and industrial base, including with more investments,” reads the text from an informal leaders’ meeting to be held in Granada, Spain next week. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the prospect of Donald Trump returning as U.S. president next year in Washington — which could lead to less military support for Kyiv — has forced Brussels to rethink its approach to defense. The so-called Granada declaration, first reported by Bloomberg, aims to prepare a political direction for the next European Commission, tackling various subjects such as competitiveness, migration and enlargement.On EU enlargement, the text argues that it will enhance “European sovereignty and is a geo-strategic investment in peace, s...

Video appears to show American soldier who crossed into North Korea arriving back in the US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

The American soldier who sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas two months ago arrived back in the U.S. early Thursday, video appeared to show.Pvt. Travis King’s release was secured with the help of ally Sweden and rival China, the White House said Wednesday. North Korea abruptly announced earlier that day that it would expel the soldier.While officials have said King, 23, is in good health and the immediate focus will be on caring for him and reintegrating him into U.S. society, his troubles are likely far from over.King, who had served in South Korea, ran into the North while on a civilian tour of a border village on July 18, becoming the first American confirmed to be detained in the isoin nearly five years. At the time, he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, following his release from prison in South Korea on an assault conviction.He has been declared AWOL from the Army. In many cases,...

On the cusp of AL East title, 2023 Orioles join club’s proud lineage of breakout teams

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

Austin Hays knows this season won’t soon be forgotten.He was around when the Orioles lost twice as many games as they won. He felt every step they climbed over the past five years.“This is what you dream of,” he said Tuesday. “Going from multiple 100-loss seasons … to turn it around this year and be right on the cusp of winning 100 games, it’s going to always stick with us.”The Orioles rekindled a fan base’s hope when they leapt from 52 wins in 2021 to 83 last year, but few analysts predicted another jump. Vegas sportsbooks had the team’s over/under at 76.5 wins. Instead, the Orioles are nearing 100 wins and on the doorstep of an American League East title, achievements that put them among the greatest breakout teams in franchise history.Over their 70 seasons in Baltimore, the Orioles have fielded brilliant teams and putrid ones, but only a precious few carried the whiff of fresh, wonderful surprise that exists around th...

Israel’s High Court hears a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove Netanyahu from office

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday was hearing a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, which critics say is designed to protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been working to reshape the justice system while he is on trial for alleged corruption.The hearing is part of several pivotal court challenges against a proposed package of legislation and government steps meant to alter the country’s justice system. It comes after months of turmoil in Israel over the plan and deepens a rift between Netanyahu’s government and the judiciary, which it wants to weaken despite unprecedented opposition. Thursday’s hearing on the law, the second by the High Court, took place in front of an expanded 11-judge panel, underscoring the importance of the deliberations.Netanyahu’s governing coalition — Israel’s most religious and nationalist ever — passed an amendment known as the “incapacitation law” in March which allows ...

Stock market today: Global shares mostly fall over China worries

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mostly lower Thursday in subdued trading on looming worries about China property woes. France’s CAC 40 shed 0.3% to 7,050.19 in early trading. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.4% to 15,164.02. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged down 0.6% to 7,544.91. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down nearly 0.1% at 33,759.00. S&P 500 futures was virtually unchanged at 4,313.00. Trading in shares of heavily indebted Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group was suspended in Hong Kong. That followed media reports that the chairman of Evergrande, Hui Ka Yan, had been taken away earlier this month and placed under police watch.Evergrande is the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer and is at the center of a property market crisis that is dragging on China’s economic growth.“The relatively quiet economic calendar today may lead sentiments on a more subdued tone, while reservations on risk taking may continue to revolve aroun...

Vietnam sentences climate activist to 3 years in prison for tax evasion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese climate activist was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud, state media reported.Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 50, who headed the environmental advocacy group Change, which works on environment and climate issues, was also fined 100 million Vietnamese dong ($4,100) by a court in Ho Chi Minh City, the state-owned Viet Nam News reported.She is the fifth known climate or environmental activist who has been jailed in Vietnam in the past five years.“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton of the human rights group The 88 Project, adding that it shows the law being weaponized to go after climate activists.Hong was accused of evading taxes amounting to 6.7 billion Vietnamese dong ($274,702) from 2012 to 2022, state media reported citing the indictment.The trial lasted half a day after Hong pled guilty.In 2018, U.S. President Barack Obama described Hong as one of the young people worldwide ...

Analysis: American soldier’s release from detention was quick by North Korean standards

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Maybe it never made sense for North Korea to hold on to Pvt. Travis King.Just over two months after he sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, King was put on a plane back to America after the North released him into U.S. custody. Several recent American detainees had been held for over a year — 17 months in the case of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was arrested during a group tour. Warmbier was in a coma when he was deported, and later died.King’s case was unique, not least because he was one of the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from the nuclear-armed North.There had been speculation that North Korea would try to maximize the propaganda value of an active duty U.S. soldier who voluntarily crossed into its territory, reportedly because he was disillusioned with racism in the military and American society. The North has often been accused of using American de...

An explosion following a lightning strike in the Uzbek capital kills 1 person and injures 162

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

A powerful explosion in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, killed a teenage boy Thursday and injured at least 162 people following a fire caused by a lightning strike, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Health said.The Ministry of Emergency Situations said the explosion happened early in the morning at a warehouse in southern Tashkent but did not say what was inside it to cause the powerful blast which it said was attended by 16 fire crews. Russian state media Tass later reported that the warehouse contained several dozen electric vehicles and batteries. It said that the explosion also caused minor damage to the nearby Quruvchilar subway station. Video and photos posted on social media showed a fire and cloud of smoke that was visible across Tashkent, as well as apartments that had reportedly been damaged by the force of the blast. Twenty-four people were hospitalized after the explosion and the remaining 138 were treated for their injuries and sent home according to the health ministry which added...

As thaw accelerates, Swiss glaciers have lost 10% of their volume in the past 2 years, experts say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:46 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier melt in the Alpine country, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in just two years after high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter.Switzerland — home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe — has seen 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023, the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022, the biggest thaw since measurements began, the academy’s commission for cryosphere observation said.Experts at the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center have been on the lookout for a possible extreme melt this year amid early warning signs about the country’s estimated 1,400 glaciers, a number that is now dwindling.“The acceleration is dramatic, with as much ice being lost in only two years as was the case between 1960 and 1990,” the academy said. “The two extreme consecutive years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and the disappearance of many smaller...