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Rishi Sunak could face fifth by-election after Chris Pincher report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

LONDON — Suspended Tory MP Chris Pincher could be permanently forced from parliament following a damning report into groping allegations against him.In a report Thursday, the standards committee recommended an eight-week suspension for the MP after finding that he drunkenly “groped two individuals” during visits to Westminster’s Carlton Club.Under parliament rules for removing MPs, this level of punishment — if approved by MPs — could lead to a recall petition, ultimately triggering a by-election at a time Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is already facing four.In their report, the standards committee — made up of cross-party MPs — found that Pincher’s behavior was “completely inappropriate, profoundly damaging to the individuals concerned, and represented an abuse of power.” Pincher’s conduct played a key role in the downfall of Boris Johnson, whose handling of the scandal involving an ally prompted disgruntled ministers to resign en masse. The f...

Wagner chief Prigozhin isn’t in Belarus, says Lukashenko

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

Mutinous Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin is not currently in Belarus, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday morning. “As for Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. Where is he this morning? Maybe he went to Moscow, maybe somewhere else, but he is not on the territory of Belarus,” Lukashenko said, according to Belarusian state media. The mercenary chief was supposed to be in Belarus, after being exiled from Russia following an aborted mutiny he led against Moscow’s military establishment in June. Last week, Lukashenko said Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus.

Zuckerberg’s Twitter rival Threads reaches 10M users in 7 hours

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that his Threads app, a micro-blogging competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter, had more than 10 million sign-ups in just seven hours.Announcing the Threads launch, Meta — also the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — said it would offer “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.” It added that Threads users will require an Instagram account to log into the new app, and “posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.” The app has launched in the U.K., the U.S. and other countries, but Meta not yet made it available in the EU.Meta’s launch of the Threads app comes amid turbulence at Twitter, where thousands of staff have been laid off since billionaire entrepreneur Musk bought the platform for $44 billion late in 2022. Over the weekend, Musk announced that some accounts would be limited in the numbers of tweets ...

Stock market today: World markets extend losses after Wall Street drifts lower

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares slipped in Europe and Asia on Thursday as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen headed to China seeking to soothe friction between the two largest economies. Germany’s DAX lost 1% to 15,773.57 and the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 1.7% to 7,190.42. Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.2% to 7,352.98. The future for the S&P 500 was 0.4% lower while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5%. Share prices had soared recently amid signs the U.S. economy is stronger than had been feared, fending off recession so far despite high interest rates. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting released Wednesday showed that some central bank officials wanted to raise rates in mid-June, though in the end they voted unanimously to keep rates steady. The threat of further rate hikes has been weighing on investor sentiment. The next major focus for the U.S. will be jobs data due out on Friday.Markets are also watching for updates from Yellen’s ta...

Visit by Solomon Islands leader to Beijing underscores rising China-US rivalry in South Pacific

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare will visit China next week, highlighting the accelerating contest between Beijing and Washington for influence in the South Pacific. Sogavare will visit from Sunday to Saturday, meeting top officials in Beijing and traveling to Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces, among China’s most developed, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing Thursday. His visit will “inject new momentum” into relations and “deepen mutual political trust, expand pragmatic cooperation and strengthen people-to-people exchanges,” Wang said. “Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Solomon Islands, our relations have developed rapidly and achieved fruitful results, benefiting the people of both countries and promoting regional peace and stable development,” Wang said. Sogavare’s switching of diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China and signing of a secretive security agreement that could see Chine...

Wagner chief Prigozhin is in Russia, president of Belarus says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Russia’s mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg and his Wagner troops have remained at the camps where they had stayed before an abortive mutiny, the president of Belarus said Thursday.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko helped broker a deal for Prigozhin to his rebellion on June 24 in exchange for security guarantees for himself and his soldiers and permission to move to Belarus.After saying last week that Prigozhin was in Belarus, Lukashenko told international reporters Thursday that the mercenary chief is in St. Petersburg and Wagner troops still were at their camps. He did not specify the location of the camps, but Prigozhin’s mercenaries fought alongside Russian forces in Ukraine before their revolt. The rebellion saw them quickly sweep over the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and capture military headquarters there before marching on the Russian capital in what Prigozhin described as a “march of justice” to oust th...

2 explosions heard in disputed area where borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Two explosions were heard in a disputed area of southern Lebanon where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet, but the nature of Thursday’s blasts or if rockets fired from Lebanon caused them was not immediately clear, local media and security officials said.The explosions happened at a time of high tension in the border area over two tents erected by militant group Hezbollah and Israel’s building of a wall around the Lebanese part of a village that Israeli troops captured during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.A Lebanese military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to speak to journalists, said one rocket was fired toward Israel from the border town of Kfar Chouba and that Israeli forces responded with two rocket attacks.Minutes after the explosions, Hezbollah issued a statement about Israel’s wall in the village of Ghajar. The village is split into Lebanese and Israeli sides along a border, known as the blue...

In the news today: Canada melts under heat wave, 10 years since Lac-Mégantic disaster

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Extreme heat warnings remain across Canada…Southern parts of Ontario and Quebec are entering the third day of a multi-day heat event that Environment Canada has warned could see temperatures reach highs near 40 degrees Celsius when humidity is factored in.A heat warning is also in effect in British Columbia, from the north to central coast and in the Fraser Canyon area east of Vancouver, where daytime highs between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius are expected through Sunday.A similar warning is in place for the Fort Liard and Fort Providence regions of the Northwest Territories, where temperatures are expected to rise to low 30s by Friday or Saturday and into next week.On the East Coast, Environment Canada says a period of similarly hot temperatures is expected to start today and stretch into the weekend in New Brunswick, as well as the Churchill Falls region o...

Russian cruise missile attack on Ukraine city of Lviv kills 4 people and wounds more

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired cruise missiles Thursday at a western Ukraine city far from the front line of the war, killing at least four people in an apartment building in what officials said was the heaviest attack on civilian areas of Lviv since the Kremlin’s forces invaded Ukraine last year.The nighttime attack destroyed the roof and the top two floors of a residential building, injuring nine people as emergency crews with search dogs went through the rubble.Debris and wrecked parked cars lined the street outside the building, which overlooks a small neighborhood park with swings and climbing frames amid trees.Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said around 60 apartments and 50 cars in the area of strike were damaged.U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink described the attack as vicious. “Russia’s repeated attacks on civilians are absolutely horrifying,” she tweeted.The Kremlin’s forces have repeatedly hit civilian areas during the war, though Russian officials say they choose only...

The Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader, celebrates 88th birthday

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:59:34 GMT

DHARMSALA, India (AP) — The Dalai Lama celebrated his 88th birthday on Thursday, as hundreds of his supporters and exiled Tibetans thronged his hillside Indian headquarters in Dharamsala.Artists played traditional welcome tunes as the Tibetan spiritual leader arrived in his open mobile van to preside over the celebrations in the courtyard of the Tsuglakhang Temple, which was festooned with Tibetan and Buddhist flags and portraits.“We are celebrating my 88th birthday but look at me, I look barely 50,” the Dalai Lama said, smiling.He has made the hillside town of Dharmsala his headquarters since fleeing from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. India considers Tibet to be part of China, though it hosts Tibetan exiles.The Dalai Lama denies being a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.In April, the Dalai Lama faced widespread criticism after a video circulated online showed him kissing a young...