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Humza Yousaf narrowly elected new Scottish National Party leader

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

LONDON — Humza Yousaf has replaced Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party in a narrow victory over main rival Kate Forbes, the party announced Monday.Currently the Scottish government’s health secretary, Yousaf will become Scotland’s next first minister this week. After second preference votes were taken into account, he won 52.1 percent of the vote to 47.9 percent for rival Forbes.It represents a slim margin of victory over Forbes, an SNP rising star who ran as a change candidate with occasional attacks on Yousaf and the SNP’s record in government. Yousaf is close to Sturgeon and ran promising continuity — but the result highlights the mammoth task he’ll face in reuniting a party rocked by a divisive contest.Speaking at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium, where the results were announced, Yousaf vowed to “lead the SNP in the interests of all party members, not just those who voted for me” and “lead Scot...

GM Pick Eng Pledges ‘New Way Of Doing Business’ At MBTA

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

Phillip Eng, the former president of the Long Island Rail Road, will become the next top leader at the MBTA as Gov. Maura Healey’s administration sets out to put the ailing transit agency on firmer footing. Healey’s office announced Monday morning that it settled on Eng, who retired from the LIRR in February 2022 after four years at its helm in which the commuter rail system reported its best-ever on-time performance, as the next top leader at the T. His appointment brings to a close a months-long search process that began before Healey took the oath of office. “Phil Eng is the proven leader the MBTA needs to improve safety and reliability across the system and restore the public’s trust,” Healey said in a statement. “He understands that a functioning transportation system is essential to a functioning economy, and he has a track record of taking the reins of struggling public transit systems and dramatically improving service. He also takes ...

MBTA: Shuttle buses to replace Orange Line trains between North Station and Wellington

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

The MBTA says shuttle buses will replace all Orange Line trains between North Station and Wellington starting Monday.The shuttle buses will start running after 8:45 a.m. and continue until the end of service.The T says this change will be in place through Thursday.The MBTA says shuttle service is part of the systemwide effort to improve safety and remove speed restrictions.https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/1640337878843551747?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EtweetOther lines are getting new service options as well. Starting Monday, Commuter Rail service will be available for Green Line riders and ferry service for Blue Line riders. The Haverhill line of the Commuter Rail will also be available for Orange Line riders. https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/1639999463547600896

Death toll climbs to 7 in Pennsylvania candy factory explosion as all missing individuals are accounted for, officials say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

(CNN) — Two additional bodies have been found by search and rescue teams working to locate missing individuals after the explosion of an eastern Pennsylvania candy factory last week, raising the incident’s death toll to seven people, officials said Sunday.“We do believe them to be the remaining presumptive missing individuals,” Wayne Holben, Chief of the West Reading Police Department, said at a news conference.Now that all missing individuals have been accounted for, the focus will shift to an investigation of the explosion, West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag said.The explosion erupted shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, leveling the R.M. Palmer Co. facility and stunning West Reading — a community of about 4,500 people that has been home to the chocolatier’s operation for more than six decades.Three buildings surrounding the factory will be condemned as a precaution, Kaag said. She explained that the buildings need to be assessed by structural ...

Healey appoints Phillip Eng to lead embattled MBTA

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey has named a new GM for the MBTA, appointing Phillip Eng, a former top executive at New York’s transit authority, to lead the embattled agency.“Phil Eng is the proven leader the MBTA needs to improve safety and reliability across the system and restore the public’s trust,” said Healey in the Monday morning announcement. “He understands that a functioning transportation system is essential to a functioning economy, and he has a track record of taking the reins of struggling public transit systems and dramatically improving service. He also takes a collaborative approach to his work and maintains open lines of communication with customers, workers, businesses, local officials and communities.”For his part, Eng acknowledged it’s time for a change at the T.“It’s time for a new way of doing business at the MBTA. As an engineer, a transportation professional for 40 years, and a commuter myself, I’m laser focused on finding innovative solutions to complex probl...

New Maryland provider opening in post-Roe ‘abortion desert’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A new abortion provider is opening this year in Democratic-controlled Maryland — just across from deeply conservative West Virginia, where state lawmakers recently passed a near-total abortion ban.The Women’s Health Center of Maryland in Cumberland, roughly 5 miles (8 kilometers) from West Virginia, will open its doors in June — a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections — to provide abortions to patients across central Appalachia, a region clinic operators say is an “abortion desert.” “Hours in any direction, there are no other abortion providers here — it’s smack dab in the middle of an absolute abortion desert, and that’s by design,” said Katie Quiñonez, executive director of the Charleston-based Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, the state’s lone abortion clinic until it was forced to stop the procedures after legislators in September passed a ban with narrow exemptions.The Cumberland clinic will be...

Zelenskyy meets with UN atomic agency chief in Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.N. atomic energy chief Rafael Mariano Grossi in southern Ukraine on Monday.The two discussed the precarious situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has lost several of its power transmission cables during the conflict and on multiple occasions has had to switch to emergency diesel generators.Grossi, who is director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to visit the plant, which is held by Russian forces, this week.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two people were killed and 29 wounded Monday when Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, local officials said.Video footage of the aftermath showed damaged residential buildings, debris in the streets and vehicles on fire.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “terrorism....

Saudi Aramco to invest billions in Chinese petrochemicals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco will invest billions of dollars in China’s downstream petrochemicals industry, including the construction of a new refinery, the company said in deals announced Sunday and Monday.The announcements came as the company posted a record profit of more than $160 billion in 2022 and as Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally, has developed closer ties with Beijing in recent years. Aramco will acquire a 10% interest in China’s Rongsheng Petrochemical Co. Ltd,, a purchase valued at $3.6 billion. Under a long-term sales agreement, Aramco will supply 480,000 barrels per day to Rongsheng affiliate Zhejiang Pettroleum and Chemical Co. Ltd., which owns and operates China’s largest refining and chemicals complex.“This announcement demonstrates Aramco’s long-term commitment to China and belief in the fundamentals of the Chinese petrochemicals sector,” Aramco executive vice president Mohammed Al Qahtani...

Banks lead stock gains after First Citizens buys SVB assets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising on Wall Street Monday as battered bank stocks show more strength, at least for now. The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in early trading Monday. The Dow and the Nasdaq composite also rose. Markets have been in turmoil following the second-and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history earlier this month. Investors have been hunting for what banks could be next to fall as the system creaks under the pressure of much higher interest rates. First Citizens’ stock soared after saying it would buy most of Silicon Valley Bank, whose failure sparked the industry’s furor earlier this month. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.U.S. futures shot higher early Monday, with bank stocks mostly gaining after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it had agreed to the sale of troubled Silicon Valley Bank to North Carolina-based First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each climbed 0....

Report: Queen Elizabeth II asked Germany for pricey horses

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:36 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Two horses fit for a queen, please.That’s what Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II had asked for as a gift during her state visit to Germany in 1978, weekly Der Spiegel reported Monday.The expensive present raised eyebrows among German bureaucrats at the time, who noted that the cost of the Holsteiner and Gray horses was more than for any other offering made to a visiting head of state since the end of World War II.Nevertheless, Germany’s then-President Walter Scheel approved the gift in the interests of good bilateral relations, Der Spiegel reported citing previously confidential archive papers.The magazine reported that the papers also noted the late monarch’s aperitif preferences — gin and tonic — and dislike of helicopters.Records showed that the British embassy had concerns about possible protests if Elizabeth visited Dresden during her trip in 1992. In the end she did attend a church service and was largely welcomed by locals in the city that was...