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Brexit Wars part II: Tories plot British exit from Europe’s human rights treaty

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

LONDON — For years, U.K. Conservatives seeking right-wing support have floated idle threats to pull Britain out of Europe’s top human rights treaty. This time, they might actually mean it.As a steady stream of undocumented migrants continues to arrive on U.K. shores, British ministers are running out of ideas on how to deliver Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s totemic promise to “stop the boats” crossing the English Channel.And with Sunak’s flagship deterrence plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda still snarled up in the courts after a flurry of human rights claims, an increasing number of Conservatives want Britain to take a more radical step — leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) altogether. It would be a seismic decision. Britain was one of the driving forces behind the drafting of the ECHR in 1950, with Winston Churchill hailing its charter as “central to our movement.” Today, the only European nations that are not members are Russia — expelled last ye...

Inflation? This man holds the key

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

One man may be about to make the difference to how the globe’s central banks deal with inflation.As Jerome Powell, the chair of the U.S’s Federal Reserve, prepares to speak at its annual shindig at Jackson Hole on Friday, he could signal whether he’s ready to perform a major shift. The world is watching.After America’s worst inflation in 40 years, and similar patterns in Europe and the U.K., he may indicate that an intense period of raising interest rates to get price rises under control is over. Yet that’s difficult while it still isn’t as low as he’d like it to be. So the big question that Powell’s speech needs to address is really: how long can it afford to keep rates this high given increasing signs that they may be contributing to an economic slowdown? And if the answer is not very long, then will they just change their inflation targets?Finessing the approachTwo clear strands of thought have emerged in the days running up to the getaway in Wyoming. One says the Fed should keep...

14-year-old boy shot in the face in Fall River

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

A 14-year-old boy was taken to an area hospital Thursday night with an apparent gunshot wound to the face, Fall River police said. Detective Sergeant Moses Pereira in a statement said officers first responded to the Maple Gardens Housing Development around 8 p.m. for a report of shots fired. Pereira said officers found the injured teen on scene. The teen was then rushed to HASBRO Children’s Hospital with what Pereira described as “potentially life-threatening injuries.”“The investigation is extremely fluid at this time as investigators attempt to determine the circumstances surrounding the injury,” Pereira said. “Early indications suggest that this incident likely did not occur in the manner in which it was initially reported to police.”Investigators were spotted in the area with crime tape in place for several hours after this incident. No further information was immediately available. This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest ...

Kyle Gibson’s eight innings, Cedric Mullins’ tool set lead Orioles to series-clinching 5-3 win over Blue Jays

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

This is why the Orioles signed Kyle Gibson.With their rotation in flux, the Orioles called upon Gibson, temporarily their lone veteran starter, once again, a day earlier than expected. He delivered Baltimore’s lengthiest start of the season Thursday, going eight innings in a series-clinching 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.The outing, supported by home runs from Anthony Santander and Cedric Mullins, kept the Orioles’ lead on the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East at two games. Baltimore (79-48) ends the season with a 10-3 record against Toronto, leading the Blue Jays — at 70-58 the best team in the AL not in playoff position — by 9 1/2 games.Gibson, signed to a one-year, $10 million contract this offseason, has often provided dependability in the Orioles’ rotation, even as his surface-level numbers have been less than stellar. After Thursday’s eight innings of three-run ball, Gibson has a 5.84 ERA in his past 14 starts, but nine of ...

Mug shot of Donald Trump shows scowling former president during speedy booking at Atlanta jail

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

By ERIC TUCKER, KATE BRUMBACK and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — A scowling Donald Trump posed for a mug shot Thursday as he surrendered inside a jail in Atlanta on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, creating a historic and humbling visual underscoring the former president’s escalating legal troubles.The booking photo instantly becomes part of the former president’s legacy as he confronts criminal charges in four American cities while seeking to reclaim the White House. His aides swiftly seized on the image, fundraising off the first mug shot in American history of a former president as representative of the persecution they contend Trump is encountering. His opponents, meanwhile, are likely to use it to remind voters of dangers in electing a president facing dozens of felony charges. Trump was released on $200,000 bond and headed back to the airport for his return flight home to New Jersey, flashing a thumbs-u...

Boston’s South End under siege as mayor floats 4th shelter

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

South End residents are saying enough is enough to the city’s response to the misery of Mass and Cass, and in particular a plan to add 30 shelter beds at a building under an overpass at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street.“It’s a Band-Aid. And the medicine is worse than the disease,” said new state Rep. John Moran, who represents much of the South End, including this troubled area, as well as Lower Roxbury, of the proposal.“It creates a fourth shelter in the south end, which we do not need. We’ve been promised to have decentralization here,” he said.Moran and Boston City Council President Ed Flynn met with the president and vice president of the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association at the corner of East Concord and Albany streets at 7 a.m. Thursday to survey and discuss a city plan to open a new shelter in the 700-block of Albany Street that Mayor Michelle Wu is scheduled to unveil at 10 a.m. Friday.It was still some 30 minutes until AHOPE — wh...

Trump returns to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, shortly after surrendering in Georgia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has returned to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, firing off his first message in 2 1/2 years shortly after he surrendered at an Atlanta jail on charges he conspired to overturn his election loss.He posted a photo of his mug shot and the words, “Election interference. Never surrender!” along with a link to his website, which directs to a fundraising site.It was Trump's first post since Jan. 8, 2021, when Twitter suspended his account indefinitely, citing fears he would incite additional violence following the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol building. His account was reinstated last November shortly after Elon Musk took over the company, but Trump had refrained from tweeting, insisting that he was happier on his own Truth Social site, which he launched during the ban.The message marks a homecoming of sorts for Trump to one of his most important megaphones — one he used to dominate his rivals in the 2016 primary and t...

Norway is rebuilding a reindeer fence at the border to stop the animals’ costly strolls into Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway is rebuilding a dilapidated reindeer fence along its border with Russia in the Arctic to stop the animals from wandering into the neighboring country — costly strolls for which Oslo has to compensate Moscow over loss of grassland. Norwegian officials said Thursday that so far this year, 42 reindeer have crossed into Russia seeking better pastures and grazing land. The reindeer barrier along the Norway-Russia border spans 150 kilometers (93 miles) and dates back to 1954. The Norwegian Agriculture Agency said a stretch of about 7 kilometers (4 miles) between the Norwegian towns of Hamborgvatnet and Storskog would be replaced. The construction, with a price tag of 3.7 million kroner ($348,000), is to be completed by Oct. 1, the agency said.The work is a challenge, however, as the workers have to stay on the Norwegian side of the border “at all times” during construction, “which makes the work extra demanding,” said Magnar Evertsen of the ag...

Lawsuit over deadly seaplane crash in Washington state targets aircraft operator and manufacturer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Representatives for all but one of the nine passengers killed in a seaplane crash near Washington state’s Whidbey Island are suing the aircraft’s charter operator and its manufacturer. The three lawsuits, filed Tuesday in King County Superior Court, say the companies are responsible for the victims’ deaths, The Seattle Times reported. The lawsuits name Northwest Seaplanes and De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, along with other aviation entities, as defendants. The single-engine De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbine Otter that crashed was owned by Northwest Seaplanes.The pilot and nine passengers died Sept. 4, 2022, when the plane, traveling to the Seattle suburb of Renton from Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, crashed into Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island.The crash was “entirely preventable” and the aviation companies are liable for damages, one complaint alleges. All the lawsuits are similar in their allegations and in the descriptions of the pain and suffer...

Rescuers who freed children and adults from broken cable car honored by Pakistan’s prime minister

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:52 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister has paid tribute to the commandos and volunteers who rescued six children and two adults from the broken cable car where they dangled over a valley in a 16-hour ordeal.At the ceremony Thursday in Islamabad with the eight rescued people in attendance, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar embraced the rescuers and handed them certificates in acknowledgement of their actions, saying he was proud of them. In televised remarks, Kakar said when he heard the news on Tuesday, he felt as if his own son was among those trapped in the broken cable car. The rescue hundreds of meters (yards) above a river canyon in Battagram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest, transfixed Pakistanis and was widely hailed for its successful outcome. Initially, one of the youngest was grabbed by a commando attached to a helicopter by rope, while others were lowered to the ground with the help of volunteers using a makeshift chairlift built ...