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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appoints new defense secretary after Ben Wallace resigns role

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Grant Shapps, one of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s staunchest Cabinet allies, was named U.K. defense secretary on Thursday as Sunak began a Cabinet reshuffle ahead of a general election that is expected to take place next year.The move came after Ben Wallace formally submitted his resignation earlier in the day, honoring a promise made last month. Wallace was defense secretary for four years, overseeing Britain’s military response to the war in Ukraine.Shapps, who supported Sunak during his campaign to become Conservative Party leader and prime minister last year, has been a Cabinet member since 2019, most recently serving as secretary of state for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.Wallace used his resignation letter to press for increased funding for the military, long his primary issue.“I genuinely believe that over the next decade the world will get more insecure and more unstable,’’ Wallace wrote in his letter to Sunak. “We both share the belief...

Europe’s inflation held steady in August as European Central Bank keeps an open mind on rates

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Annual inflation held steady in Europe in August as food prices raced ahead of falling fuel costs, but there was no clarity about whether the European Central Bank can pause its record series of interest rate hikes.The consumer price index for the 20 countries that use the euro currency was unchanged at 5.3% from the July reading, supported by food, alcohol and tobacco prices that increased a painful 9.8% since last August, according to official figures Thursday from EU statistics agency Eurostat.Another key inflation number — so-called core inflation that leaves out volatile fuel and food — also eased in August, falling to 5.3% from 5.5%. That figure will be a key consideration for the ECB in deciding whether interest rates need to go higher or can remain unchanged while bank officials assess the impact of higher rates on growth.Fuel prices fell 3.3% amid flat global oil prices and diminished summer demand for heating fuel. European Central Bank President ...

Police search for driver after downtown hit-and-run sent man to hospital

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

Police are searching for a suspect after a hit-and-run in downtown Toronto left a man injured early Thursday morning.Emergency crews responded to the area of Sherbourne and Dundas streets around 4:25 a.m. after getting reports a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle.Paramedics say a man was sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.The driver did not remain at the scene. Police say they are looking for white SUV, possibly a Chevy Equinox, that is missing its passenger side mirror and will have damage on the right side.Roads have reopened in the area.

Conductor John Eliot Gardner pulls out of future engagements after allegedly hitting a singer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Baroque music conductor John Eliot Gardiner is pulling out of future engagements after allegedly hitting a singer who left the stage incorrectly after a performance.The conductor said in a statement Thursday that he was stepping back to get “the specialist help I recognize that I have needed for some time.”“I want to apologize to colleagues who have felt badly treated and anyone who may feel let down by my decision to take time out to address my issues. I am heartbroken to have caused so much distress, and I am determined to learn from my mistakes,” he said.The conductor allegedly hit William Thomas after the bass singer left the podium on the wrong side during a concert last week at the Festival Berlioz in La Cote-Saint-Andre, southeastern France.A spokesperson for Gardiner initially said the conductor was suffering from extreme heat in France and suspected that a recent change in medication may have contributed to the behavior, according to the classical music ...

A train slams into group of workers on the tracks at an Italian station, killing 5 of them

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

ROME (AP) — A speeding work train slammed into a group of workers doing nighttime track maintenance in northern Italy early Thursday, killing five of them, authorities said. The crash occurred shortly after midnight at the station in Brandizzo, a town in Italy’s Piedmont region. Piedmont Gov. Alberto Cirio provided the death toll and said the crash’s cause was under investigation. Brandizzo Mayor Paolo Bodoni said there were indications that the crew of the train, which state radio said was believed to be going some 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph), was unaware there were workers on the tracks, reported La Stampa, a newspaper in Piedmont’s main city, Turin.The train consisted of an engine car used to move empty train cars. “The first information reaching me refers to a scarcity of communication between the (work) team and who should have signaled the passage of the train, but we need to see what really happened,” Bodoni was quoted as saying. “There is also the que...

Greece further reinforces firefighting forces in massive wildfire in northeast burning for 13th day

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities further reinforced firefighting forces in the country’s northeast Thursday, where a massive blaze in its thirteenth day has flared up once more, triggering authorities to issue alerts to residents in the area to be on standby for possible evacuation.More than 100 extra firefighters were deployed, bringing the total to 582, backed by a fleet of 10 planes and seven helicopters from nine European countries, the fire department said. The fire that started Aug. 19 has decimated homes and vast tracts of forest in the Alexandroupolis and Evros region, near Greece’s border with Turkey. It has been blamed for 20 of last week’s 21 wildfire-related deaths in Greece.Several other people, including the two-member crew of a firefighting plane, have lost their lives in wildfires so far this year in Greece. Lawmakers held a minute of silence at the start of a parliamentary debate on the fires and the state response Wednesday morning.The reasons for the countr...

A building fire in Johannesburg kills at least 73 people, many of them homeless, authorities say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, killing at least 73 people early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said.Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift structures inside the building threw themselves out of windows to escape the fire and might have died then, a local government official said. Seven of the victims were children, the youngest a 1-year-old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.As many as 200 people may have been living in the building, witnesses said. Emergency crews expected to find more victims as they worked their way through the building, a process slowed by the conditions inside. Dozens of bodies were lined up on a nearby side road, some in body bags, and others covered with silver sheets and blankets.Another 52 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out at about 1 a.m. in the hear...

Stock market today: Global shares trade higher ahead of US updates on inflation and hiring

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets were mostly higher Thursday ahead of updates on United States inflation and hiring that traders hope will persuade the Federal Reserve no more interest rate hikes are needed.London, Tokyo and Paris advanced. Shanghai declined. Oil prices rose.Wall Street futures were higher after the U.S. government cut its estimate of economic growth for the second quarter to a still-robust level.The U.S. government was due to issue an inflation update Thursday in a report on personal consumption and expenditures — the measure of prices most closely watched by the Fed. It eased to 3% in July from last year’s peak of 7%.Monthly employment data for August are due out Friday following reports this week that hiring is cooling.The latest data “bolster the case for no change in rates” at the Fed’s September meeting, said Rubeela Farooqi of High-Frequency Economics in a report.In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London gained less than 0.1% to 7,475.07. The CAC 40 i...

Idalia hits North Carolina after pounding Florida, Georgia and South Carolina

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Idalia descended on the Carolinas on its way out to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction throughout the Southeast that stretched back to its landfall as a hurricane in Florida.Rescue and repair efforts continued in the areas the storm passed Wednesday and there was no immediate word on the toll from the ferocious winds and inundating waters, but authorities counted at least one death. Eastern NC braces for weather event from Idalia The storm left as many as a half-million customers without power in Florida and other states at one point as it ripped down power poles and lines. Still, it was far less destructive than feared, providing only glancing blows to Tampa Bay and other more populated areas as it came ashore with 125 mph (201 kph) winds in rural Florida.The weakening storm still packed winds of up to 60 mph (96 kph) as it blasted through Georgia and South Carolina on Wednesday evening. It was expected to...

Alabama man airlifted to Albany med in VT crash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:11 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A man from Theodore, Alabama, was airlifted to Albany Medical Center Wednesday night with severe injuries. Vermont State Police (VSP) say the crash happened around 9:14 p.m. Get the latest news, weather, sports and more delivered right to your inbox! An off-duty trooper alerted VSP at the Shaftsbury barracks about a Jeep unable to stay in its lane driving south on VT Route 7a in Arlington. Troopers found the Jeep driving on VT Route 7a near Old West Road. Police say the Jeep sped up, lost control around a corner, and ultimately struck a telephone pole, causing it to land on its side. The driver was airlifted to Albany Medical Center with severe injuries. The Arlington Fire Department, Arlington Rescue Squad, Shaftsbury Fire Department, and Green Mountain Power assisted troopers on the scene.