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Germany questions Hungary’s ability to hold EU’s rotating presidency in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

BRUSSELS – Germany cast doubt Tuesday on Hungary’s ability to lead the EU’s policy-making process next year, adding fuel to nascent chatter about whether the EU would ever delay Budapest’s turn helming its rotating presidency.Hungary is slated to hold the position for the second half of 2024, giving it a key role in coordinating policy work at the Council of the EU. The prospect has unnerved some Budapest critics, who note Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government is facing pervasive allegations of democratic backsliding and is mired in an ongoing rule-of-law fight with Brussels.“I have doubts about the extent to which Hungary will be able to lead a successful Council presidency,” Germany’s Europe Minister Anna Lührmann told reporters on Tuesday in Brussels, where various government ministers were gathering for a meeting. Lührmann cited Hungary’s alleged rule-of-law violations and wavering stance on backing Ukraine in its war against Russia.The remarks add a powerfu...

Danish conservative MEP deselected over bullying complaints

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

Danish conservative MEP Pernille Weiss, the European Parliament’s negotiator on the pharmaceutical directive, will not be presented by her national party as a candidate for the 2024 European elections after an internal investigation uncovered reports of bullying in her office.Weiss, who sits in the center-right European People’s Party group, is also the Parliament’s negotiator for the EU’s Waste Shipment Regulation.Denmark’s Conservative People’s Party made the announcement Tuesday, saying that its executive committee had unanimously decided not to put her up for reelection and that a new candidate will be found. According to the party announcement, the internal investigation was based on a number of interviews with former employees who had worked for Weiss in Brussels, and who all talked about the difficult work environment. “Words such as bullying, humiliation and feeling threatened were used, among other things,” the announcement sa...

Prove you don’t have Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps, UK’s COVID inquiry tells government

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

LONDON — British politics is having another normal one.The U.K’s official inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic wants a top government department to prove it doesn’t possess Boris Johnson’s notebooks or WhatsApp messages, amid a bitter row over the disclosure of the ex-PM’s material.The public inquiry’s chair, Heather Hallett, has been embroiled in a dispute with the Cabinet Office even before the probe’s formal hearings have begun. Hallett has requested un-redacted information about Johnson’s handling of the pandemic, but the Cabinet Office argues much of what it’s being asked to hand over is “unambiguously irrelevant to the Inquiry’s work.”A fresh twist came Tuesday when the inquiry said it had been informed by the Cabinet Office that it does not possess either Johnson’s messages or his notebooks. Hallett wants proof.In a notice on the inquiry website, Hallett said that if the Cabinet Office is sticking to that story...

Man dies after losing balance, falling under Green Line train at North Station

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

A man died after losing his balance and falling underneath a Green Line trolley at the MBTA’s North Station early Tuesday morning, officials said.Officers responding to a report of a person struck by an outbound trolley around 12:18 a.m. conducted an investigation and determined the man tried to kick the side of a moving trolley that was departing the station and fell underneath it as it was leaving, according to a transit police spokesman.He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released.In a statement, a transit police spokesman said, “On behalf of the entire MBTA organization we express our most sincere condolences to family, friends and loved ones of the decedent.”No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Column: Liam Hendriks’ return offers the Chicago White Sox a brief reprieve from nonstop fan angst

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

Whether the long-anticipated return of Liam Hendriks provides the Chicago White Sox with the jolt they desperately need to get back to respectability won’t be known for a while.A closer can do only so much, after all, unless the ball is in his hands with a lead. If Hendriks doesn’t get save opportunities, he can’t do much to change the direction of the Sox, other than provide inspiration for his teammates who watched his journey back from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.But the plight of the Sox was on the back burner Monday night at Sox Park. The Memorial Day game against the Los Angeles Angels seemed secondary to Hendriks’ first appearance this season in a Sox uniform, giving general manager Rick Hahn and the players a temporary reprieve from the nonstop fan angst that built up over the first two months.LiamFest, the celebration of Hendriks’ comeback from cancer, was observed before and during the game Monday — Hendriks’ first on an active major-leag...

Beijing says no meeting between US, Chinese defense chiefs at Singapore gathering

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Prospects for a renewed high-level military dialogue between China and the U.S. remain dim, with Beijing saying their defense chiefs will not hold a bilateral meeting while both are attending a weekend security conference in Singapore.Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday blamed the U.S., saying Washington should “earnestly respect China’s sovereignty and security interests and concerns, immediately correct the wrongdoing, show sincerity, and create the necessary atmosphere and conditions for dialogue and communication between the two militaries.”Mao gave no details, but tensions between the sides have spiked over Washington’s military support and sales of defensive weapons to self-governing Taiwan, China’s assertions of sovereignty to the contested South China Sea and its flying of a suspected spy balloon over the U.S.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to address the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, while Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Sha...

Russia says drones lightly damage Moscow buildings before dawn, while Ukraine’s capital bombarded

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A rare drone attack jolted Moscow early Tuesday, causing only light damage but forcing evacuations as residential buildings were struck in the Russian capital for the first time in the war against Ukraine. The Kremlin, meanwhile, pursued its relentless bombardment of Kyiv with a third assault on the city in 24 hours.The Russian Defense Ministry said five drones were shot down in Moscow and the systems of three others were jammed, causing them to veer off course. It called the incident a “terrorist attack” by the “Kyiv regime.”The attack, causing only what Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called “insignificant damage” to several buildings, brought the war home to civilians in Russia’s capital. Two people received treatment for unspecified injuries but did not need hospitalization, he said in a Telegram post, adding that residents of two high-rise buildings damaged in the attack were evacuated.Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the wider Moscow region, said some of the dron...

Stock market today: US futures mostly higher ahead of debt ceiling vote, oil falls again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

TOKYO — Wall Street pointed mostly higher early Tuesday after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement on a deal to raise the U.S. national debt ceiling. Futures for the Dow were flat the S&P 500 rose 0.7% before the bell. Biden and McCarthy are now working to gather votes needed to gain congressional approval in time to avert a default. Biden spent part of the Memorial Day holiday working the phones, calling lawmakers in both parties, as the president worked to deliver the votes. A number of hard right conservatives are criticizing the deal as falling short of the deep spending cuts they wanted, while liberals decry policy changes such as new work requirements for older Americans in the food aid program.A key test comes Tuesday afternoon when the House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the package and vote on sending it to the full House for a vote expected Wednesday.“I feel very good about it,” Biden told reporters Monday as he left Wash...

Crowd in China clashes with police over plans to demolish mosque

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government is calling on protesters to turn themselves in after a crowd clashed with police over plans to demolish a mosque in the country’s southwest as President Xi Jinping’s government tightens control over religion and society.Protesters threw water bottles at officers with helmets and shields outside the blue-domed Najiaying Mosque in Yuxi, a city in Yunnan province, according to videos on social media. One punched a police officer’s helmet but little other violence was shown.The Associated Press confirmed the location of the protest. Videos showing the protests were removed from Chinese social media.Police called on “criminal suspects” to turn themselves in following Saturday’s incident and said those who do might receive lighter punishment. A police statement vowed “zero tolerance” toward “criminal activities that impede social management.”People who answered the phone Tuesday at the police headquarters referred questions to the local govern...

Israeli army says Palestinian gunmen kills Israeli civilian in West Bank shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:25 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian gunmen shot and killed an Israeli civilian on Tuesday near the entrance to a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said.The Israeli military said in a statement that a man was shot near the settlement of Hermesh, in the northern West Bank. It said troops were pursuing suspected gunmen. Paramedics said they treated a man in his 30s in a serious condition with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital, which later pronounced him dead. The incident was the latest in more than a year-long surge of violence that has wracked the West Bank under Israel’s most right-wing government in history. During that time, Israel has expanded near-nightly military raids throughout the area in response to an increase in Palestinian attacks.At least 117 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, with nearly half of them members of armed militant groups, according to an Associated Press tally. But stone-th...