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Brussels unveils plan to boost EU defense industry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

BRUSSELS — European Commission industry chief Thierry Breton has urged European defense companies to get into “war economy mode” as he unveiled a new plan to boost weapons manufacturing across the EU.The Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) agreed Wednesday by the European Commission will pump some €500 million from the EU budget into European shell factories to boost weapons manufacturing — matched with co-financing of around €500 million from member countries and other sources. The aim is to produce 1 million rounds of ammunition within one year.“In Europe, we still have a real production capacity. It’s there,” Breton said in announcing the plan Wednesday. “What we need to do now is to bring up capacity.”The framework would controversially allow dipping into new pots of EU money originally intended for boosting development around the Continent. In visiting a dozen-plus producers across the EU, the French commissioner says that many sites already have the infras...

PMQs scorecard: Sunak and Starmer mark King Charles’ coronation by … fighting about mortgages

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from this week’s session in POLITICO U.K.’s weekly run-through.National unity moment: Labour’s Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took the chance to wish King Charles III all the best ahead of the coronation this weekend, which was nice of them. But that was as chummy as it got.What they sparred about: With local elections looming, the two leaders soon stepped it back up. Starmer honed in on Britain’s chronic housing shortage and the woes facing people who have, or are seeking, a mortgage in the U.K. amid rising interest rates. Sunak in turn talked up his plans to give communities more control over house building targets.Back to the future: But it all felt a bit … 2015. Starmer, for the second week in a row, opted to quote former Tory Chancellor George Osborne — who described Liz Truss’ very-short-lived Conservative regime a...

City of Cambridge to combat income inequality by giving $500 per month to low-income families

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

The City of Cambridge is combatting income inequality by giving money to low-income families.Certain households will receive $500 per month for 18 months.Qualifying families must have at least one child under the age of 21. Families of two must have a qualifying income of below $49,300 and families of five must earn below $87,850.Applications will be available starting June 1.

Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Kate Bush, George Michael among Rock Hall inductees

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius and the late George Michael have all been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Kate Bush also finally reaching the top of that hill.The Cleveland-based institution announced Wednesday the artists and groups entering the hall as the class of 2023, a list that includes The Spinners, Rage Against the Machine, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Al Kooper and Elton John’s longtime co-songwriter Bernie Taupin.“When you can go from Link Wray, who was one of the early influencers, to Missy Elliott and Kate Bush and The Spinners and Rage Against the Machine and Willie Nelson, you have a very diverse body of work. What we are always trying to show is that rock ‘n’ roll is a big tent and a lot of people belong,” said Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation ahead of the unveiling.Elliott, the first femal...

Police: Serbia school shooter had list of students to target

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

By JOVANA GEC and DUSAN STOJANOVIC (Associated Press)BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A teenager who opened fire Wednesday at a school in Serbia’s capital drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of people he intended to target in a meticulously planned attack, police said. He killed eight fellow students and a school guard before being arrested.The shooter first killed a guard at the school in central Belgrade and then three students in a hallway, according to senior police official Veselin Milic. He then entered a classroom — apparently choosing it simply because it was close to the entrance — and opened fire again, Milic said. The assailant called police himself when the attack was over, though authorities had already been alerted to the shooting.A father of a student said the shooter entered his daughter’s classroom, firing at her teacher and then her classmates as they ducked under their desks. Most students were able to flee through a back door, accord...

Sheriff: Wife of suspected Texas gunman has been arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

By JUAN A. LOZANO and NOMAAN MERCHANT (Associated Press)CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — A Texas sheriff tells The Associated Press the wife of the man suspected of killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old, has also been taken into custody.The news comes a day after authorities arrested Francisco Oropeza, following a days-long manhunt.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbors ended Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.Francisco Oropeza, 38, was captured without incident near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from his home in the rural town of Cleveland. That’s where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle shortly before midnight Friday.Oropeza had been shooting...

Gone 20 years, New Hampshire’s Old Man of Mountain lives on

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

By KATHY McCORMACK (Associated Press)CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Two decades after New Hampshire’s famous Old Man of the Mountain crumbled to pieces, the state is paying tribute to the granite profile that symbolizes its independence with new geological research, poetry, a song, and a scavenger hunt.The 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) natural rock formation — a series of ledges that resembled an old man’s face — was suspended 1,200 feet (366 meters) above Franconia Notch, held in place by turnbuckles and rods to fight erosion. It collapsed, and the rubble was discovered the morning of May 3, 2003.“When he was up there, he represented a kind of reliantly steady, reassuring presence in a world that was otherwise changing really rapidly,” said Brian Fowler, a geologist and president of the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund that plans to lead an online tribute Wednesday, with shared stories, poetry, and a new song. His departure was a stunning and shocking event, Fowler said.The Old Man was cre...

Barrick Gold reports US$120M Q1 profit, down from US$438M a year ago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

TORONTO — Barrick Gold Corp. reported its first-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue also moved lower.The gold miner, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit attributable to equity holders amounted to US$120 million or seven cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, down from US$438 million or 25 cents per diluted share in the first quarter 2022.Revenue totalled US$2.64 billion, down from US$2.85 billion in the same quarter last year.Gold production in the quarter totalled 952,000 ounces, down from 990,000 ounces a year earlier, while Barrick sold 954,000 ounces compared with 993,000 ounces a year earlier. The company’s average realized gold price rose to US$1,902 per ounce, up from US$1,876 a year ago.On an adjusted basis, Barrick says it earned 14 cents per share, down from an adjusted profit of 26 cents per share in the first three months of 2022.Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 11 cents per share and...

Turkey closes airspace to Armenian flights over monument

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey has closed its airspace to flights by Armenian aircraft in retaliation for the erection of a monument in the Armenian capital that Ankara says honors people responsible for the killings of Turkish officials, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday. In an interview with NTV television, Cavusoglu warned that Turkey would take further measures if the monument in Yerevan is not removed.The movecomes as Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic relations, had been engaged in talks to normalize ties and put decades of acrimony behind. They appointed special envoys who have held several rounds of talks. Their discussions had resulted in an agreement to resume charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan. The two countries have a more than century-old bitter relationship over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide...

Russia says it foiled an alleged drone attack on Kremlin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:59 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight in an effort to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a “terrorist act” and said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike. In a statement carried by Russian state-run news agencies, it said no casualties took place. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin wasn’t in the Kremlin at the time and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence. The Kremlin added that Putin was safe and his schedule was unchanged. There were no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. The Kremlin didn’t present any evidence from the reported incident, and its statement included few details.Tass quoted the statement as saying that the Kremlin considered the development to be a deliberate attempt on Putin’s life ahead of the Victory Day that...