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Center right aims to rebuild base in France and Italy, Croatian prime minister says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

BRUSSELS — The European People’s Party will focus on winning back traditional territory in continental powerhouses like Italy and France, said Andrej Plenković, Croatia’s prime minister.“We would like to do more to strengthen the EPP parties in the big countries,” he told POLITICO in an interview after a meeting of EPP leaders in Brussels. “This is key.” In Germany, the Christian conservative CDU-CSU alliance “is doing very well,” he pointed out.“And we would like to see that Spain comes along,” he added — its center-right Popular Party has been leading polls ahead of a snap election scheduled for later this month.But in Italy, although the Christian democrats who contributed to the birth of the EPP had run the country for almost 50 years since the end of World War II, the post-fascist Brothers of Italy recently surged in popularity and is now governing together with other right-wing parties. The EPP, represented in Rome by Forza Italia, is now...

Britain’s deputy leaders clash as Rishi Sunak skips school again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO U.K.’s weekly run-through.Living on a prayer: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer were missing in action this afternoon — instead attending a prayer service for the *checks notes* health service’s 75th birthday. Moving swiftly on, that left deputy PM Oliver Dowden and his Labour counterpart Angela Rayner to stand in.But first on that point: Eagle-eyed Labour advisors have noticed that Sunak hasn’t exactly made a virtue of attending the PMQs knockabout. Sunak now has the worst attendance record of any prime minister in history. Both stand-ins came armed with some related stand-up lines — Rayner said Sunak’s non-attendance shows the government has “given up,” while Dowden hit back pretty smartly at the not-always-harmonious relationship between Starmer and Rayner: “Some people trust their deputi...

Britain and EU agree draft Horizon deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

LONDON — U.K. and EU negotiators have agreed a draft deal on Britain’s re-entry into the Horizon Europe research program after months of hard-fought talks.U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be presented with the draft deal by officials this weekend ahead of a crunch meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen next Tuesday where the final agreement may be confirmed, two U.K. government officials — granted anonymity to speak about sensitive discussions — said.One of the officials said Britain will re-join Horizon Europe, which has a €95.5 billion budget for the period 2021-27, and the Copernicus Earth observation program — but not Euratom’s nuclear energy R&D scheme, which both the British government and the U.K. nuclear sector consider “poor value for money,” the official said.Britain formally left all three schemes when it quit the EU in January 2020, and negotiations to re-associate as a third country stalled amid the bitter row over post-Brexit trade rule...

Rain affects play at Wimbledon for 3rd straight day but matches start under the roof on Centre Court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Wimbledon is being played indoors again on Day 3 of the grass-court tournament.Rain again affected play on Wednesday, forcing matches on the outside courts to be suspended after less than a half hour of action.Only two of the stadiums at the All England Club have roofs — Centre Court and No. 1 Court.Top-seeded woman Iga Swiatek and defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic were both scheduled to play on Centre Court after the opening match between Daria Kasatkina and Jodie Burrage.On No. 1 Court, third-seeded Daniil Medvedev was playing Arthur Fery.Only eight matches were completed at Wimbledon on Tuesday because of persistent showers, creating a huge backlog for the tournament.On Wednesday, players like Swiatek and Djokovic will be playing in the second round while many players have yet to even take the court in the first round.___AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsThe Associated Press

Iran tried to seize 2 oil tankers near Strait of Hormuz and fired shots at one of them, US Navy says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, firing shots at one of them, the U.S. Navy said.It said that in both cases, the Iranian naval vessels backed off after the U.S. Navy responded to distress signals, and that both commercial ships continued their voyages.“The Iranian navy did make attempts to seize commercial tankers lawfully transiting international waters,” said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “The U.S. Navy responded immediately and prevented those seizures.”He said the gunfire directed at the second vessel did not cause casualties or major damage.The U.S. Navy says Iran has seized at least five commercial vessels in the last two years and has harassed several others. Many of the incidents have occurred in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all crude oil passes.There was no immediate Iranian comment on ...

The leaders of Italy and Poland say European Union should focus on stopping migration

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The European Union should put a priority on stopping illegal migration instead of trying to persuade the 27 member nations to share responsibility for people who arrive without authorization, the prime ministers of Italy and Poland said Wednesday. Italy’s right-wing leader, Premier Georgia Meloni, traveled to Warsaw for a meeting with her conservative Polish counterpart, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. As a country that is one of the first stops for asylum-seekers who cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, Italy is eager to reduce their number.Poland and Hungary last week vetoed a statement by EU leaders on priorities for limiting arrivals, and the two countries voted against a June 8 agreement that balanced the obligations of front-line countries against the requirement for other member nations to provide support. The governments in Warsaw and Budapest insist that preventing people from entering the EU is a better approach. After her talks with ...

Quebecor pulls ads from Facebook and Instagram in response to plan to block news

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc. is withdrawing advertising from Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms after the tech giant’s decision to remove Canadian news from its sites. Meta made the move in response to the federal Online News Act which requires Google and Meta to pay news publishers for content that appears on their sites if it helps them generate money.Both Meta and Google have said they would remove Canadian news from their platforms to avoid having to compensate the news outlets. Quebecor says it is making its move after Meta’s “categorical refusal” to enter into negotiations.The Quebec-based company says any move by Meta to circumvent Canadian law, block news for its users or discriminate against Canadian media content on its platforms, through its algorithms or otherwise, cannot be tolerated.Quebecor owns telecommunications company Videotron as well as TVA Group which includes the TVA television network, specialty channels and magazines. It also o...

Did online rhetoric lead to violence in the classroom?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, last week three people were stabbed inside a classroom at the University of Waterloo. The class dealt with philosophy of gender issues, and the attacker reportedly asked about the subject before drawing a knife.For quite some time now anti-feminist and anti-2SLGBTQ+ rhetoric has been growing harsher and more violent. Was it only a matter of time until something like this happened in Canada? How does a simple word like ‘gender’ become a red flag to disturbed individuals? What’s stochastic terrorism and what can we do to stop it?GUEST: Dr. Shana MacDonald, Associate Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo; author of this analysis in The ConversationYou can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

Stock market today: Wall Street follows global shares lower ahead of Fed notes, employment data

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

BEIJING — Wall Street headed lower early Wednesday ahead of the release of notes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting and new jobs data out later in the week.Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.5% before the bell.Notes from the monthly Fed meeting at which its key interest rate was left unchanged are due for release Wednesday. Fed officials have said rates might be raised two more times this year, but traders hope they will decide enough already has been done to cool inflation.On Friday the U.S. reports employment data for June, a day after data on weekly jobs and separately, job openings, are released. “Interest rate expectations could be reshaped depending on how the cards fall with regards to these key releases,” said Tim Waterer of KCM Trade in a report.The U.S. labor market has weathered a more than year-long effort by the Fed to cool it — and the broader economy — by raising interest rates. Layoffs are historically low,...

One dead in Oakville apartment fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:52:32 GMT

One person is dead following a fire at a highrise apartment in Oakville on Wednesday morning.Halton police say they responded to a call around 5:15 a.m. for a fire at an apartment on Queen Mary Drive, in the area of Kerr Street and Lakeshore Road West.Police confirm one person is dead. No other injuries have been reported.This is a developing story. More to come.