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Erdoğan pulls out of European summit

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

CHISINAU — A massive gathering of European leaders on Thursday has suffered its first high-profile casualty, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pulling out at the last minute.The Turkish leader, who won five more years at the helm of his country in second-round elections on Sunday, will not travel to Moldova for the one-day summit, according to three officials involved in the preparations. The so-called European Political Community (EPC) — a new collective launched in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine — is meant to draw together European leaders beyond the EU. More than 40 European leaders will be present Thursday, including those from all 27 EU countries plus non-EU countries like Britain and Turkey, as well as the Western Balkan nations.  The gathering, set to take place outside Chișinău, Moldova’s capital, is the second summit held under the EPC banner, following an inaugural meeting in Prague last October. Erdoğan attended that sum...

Sudan’s military says it has suspended its participation in talks with paramilitary rival

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s military suspended its participation in talks with a paramilitary force it’s been battling for weeks for control of the northeastern African country, a military spokesman said Wednesday. The development was a blow to the United States and Saudi Arabia, who have been mediating between the two sides. The conflict has plunged Sudan into chaos. Brig. Nabil Abdalla, a spokesman for the Sudanese armed forces, told The Associated Press that the move is a protest against the Rapid Support Forces’ “repeated violations” of the humanitarian cease-fire, including their continued occupation of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Khartoum.Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted in mid-April between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. The fighting has killed at least 866 civilians and wounded thousands more, according to the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks civili...

Daniel Pearl scholarship winner wants to change society through music

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A student who said he got goosebumps the first time he played the violin in an orchestra is this year’s recipient of a college scholarship given in honor of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in January 2002 while investigating a story on terrorism.Geivens Dextra, who is scheduled to graduate from Pittsfield High School on Sunday, will use the $2,000 Daniel Pearl Berkshire Scholarship to study music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.The scholarship has been awarded annually since 2003 to a high school student from the Berkshire Hills region of western Massachusetts who plans to major in journalism or music, Pearl’s passions. Pearl’s journalism career began in the region.“It’s really an honor to receive this scholarship for music, a subject that meant so much to Daniel Pearl,” Dextra said Wednesday.Dextra’s first formal introduction to music came in the second grade when h...

Auschwitz museum criticizes use of death camp in politics after ruling party uses it in political ad

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum has denounced a political spot by Poland’s ruling party that uses the theme of the Nazi German extermination camp to discourage participation in an upcoming anti-government march.The state-run museum attacked “instrumentalization of the tragedy” of the 1.1 million people who were murdered at the site during World War II, arguing that it is an insult to their memory.“It is a sad, painful and unacceptable manifestation of the moral and intellectual corruption of the public debate,” the state museum said.The 14-second video published Wednesday by the Law and Justice party shows images of the former death camp, including the notorious “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, and the words: “Do you really want to walk under this slogan?”The reference is to a now-deleted tweet from journalist Tomasz Lis, who claimed that President Andrzej Duda and ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski deserve to go to prison. He published the tweet amid...

Stock market today: Global markets shaky ahead of vote on debt in US and slowing factories in China

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

BEIJING — Wall Street dipped early Wednesday along with global stock markets ahead of a vote by the U.S. Congress to avert a government debt default, while a downturn in Chinese factory activity deepened, another indication that the global economy is slowing. Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the Dow Jones industrials lost 0.3% ahead of a vote by the full 435-member House on raising the government debt limit. Some legislators object to spending cuts in the plan while others want bigger reductions.President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy of the House of Representatives tried to line up votes to raise the amount the government is allowed to borrow. Officials warn the Treasury will run out of money as soon as next week, which would roil the economy and financial markets.“Any upcoming obstacle to a smooth pass-through of the deal could still trigger some de-risking,” Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a report.Uncertainty about U.S. government debt is contributing to un...

Great-West Lifeco sells Putnam Investments to Franklin Templeton

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

WINNIPEG — Great-West Lifeco Inc. has signed a deal to sell U.S.-based asset manager Putnam Investments to Franklin Resources Inc. and agreed to a strategic partnership.Under the deal, the company that operates as Franklin Templeton will make a payment of US$950 million to US$1.0 billion, consisting of 33.33 million shares at closing and US$100 million in cash six months after closing. It will also pay up to US$375 million between three and seven years after the deal closes, tied to the growth of the partnership. Great-West Lifeco will keep its controlling interest in quantitative asset manager PanAgora, and realize the value of Putnam’s seed capital, which, together with closing adjustments, are estimated to be worth US$375 million to US$425 million.It will also retain certain deferred tax assets related to Putnam.Under the partnership, Great-West Lifeco will distribute Franklin Templeton products and allocate an initial US$25 billion in assets under management to Franklin Te...

UK hails first post-Brexit trade deals with Australia, New Zealand, but impact likely small

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government hailed an era of cheaper Australian wine and New Zealand kiwi fruit as free-trade agreements with the two Southern Hemisphere nations took effect Wednesday.U.K. Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said that the start of the first all-new trade deals that Britain has struck since it left the European Union marked “a historic moment.”Economists, however, said the economic effect would be limited. Trade expert David Henig called the new deals “a bit of a nothingburger.”The agreements remove tariffs on most goods, streamline some regulations and make it easier for Britons to work Down Under, and for Aussies and Kiwis to work in the U.K.Britain marked the occasion by sending the Australian and New Zealand governments care packages of products it hopes will get an export boost, including Welsh whiskey, English gin, leather bags from the Cambridge Satchel Co. and Beano, a kids’ comic book.The U.K. says the deals will boost bilateral trade by 53% wit...

How dangerous is Canada’s G7-leading household debt?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, Canadians currently carry the most household debt of any country in the G7, and it’s also amongst the highest of all industrialized nations in the world. As the cost of living continues to rise, an inability to manage and service this debt could have profound consequences for our economy.Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work, says Canada has been leading in household debt for years, but now rising inflation and interest rates are adding to financial stress/“I don’t think we should describe this in terms of individual failing or individual responsibility. There is no doubt it’s been harder for families to make ends meet over the last couple of decades,” says Stanford.So why do we tend to view household debt as a moral failing rather than a reflection of the country’s economic realities? What factors have contributed to the alarming surge in debt, and what measures could mitigate it?You can subscr...

Latvia’s Parliament elects popular Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as new president

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — Latvian lawmakers on Wednesday picked the country’s long-serving and popular foreign minister, a strong backer of Ukraine, as its new head of state in a tight vote.The 100-seat Saeima legislature elected Edgars Rinkevics, the country’s top diplomat since 2011, as president to serve for a four-year term. He received 52 votes, one vote more than required to win the race. Incumbent Egils Levits, Latvia’s head of state since 2019, didn’t seek reelection.Rinkevics, who announced in 2014 that he is “proudly” homosexual. will be the first openly gay president in the Baltic nations — all former Soviet republics where attitudes to sexual minorities have been less tolerant than in western Europe.His closest rival, businessman Uldis Pilens, got 25 votes in the third round of voting between the two remaining contenders after the third candidate, Elina Pinto, had dropped out of the contest. Rinkevics, 49, served — among other posts — as a state secretary with th...

Suspect remains at large, 3 in custody after manhunt in Joliet

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:53 GMT

JOLIET, Ill. — Authorities continue to search for a suspect who remains at large following a manhunt in southwest suburban Joliet.Around 5 a.m. Tuesday, Joliet police received a request for assistance from other area departments regarding a police pursuit. Police were in pursuit of two vehicles that were believed to be stolen with four male burglary suspects inside. Joliet shelter in place lifted following manhunt Three of the suspects were taken into custody Tuesday after they jumped out of two stolen vehicles and fled, according to police. The males placed into custody are 21, 20 and 16, from Chicago.People in Joliet sheltered in place during the search. Authorities lifted the order after determining the fourth suspect left the area.