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Putin and top military leaders visit southern military headquarters to assess his war in Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don as he assessed the state of his country’s forces in Ukraine as the war drags on toward winter. It was his second public visit to the headquarters in less than a month.Video shared by a Russian state news agency showed Putin being greeted late Thursday by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff.Almost 21 months of war have significantly eroded both Russia’s and Ukraine’s military resources. As winter comes, the fighting is likely to further settle into attritional warfare and analysts expect little change to the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. In Rostov-on-Don, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Ukraine’s southeastern border, Putin was “introduced to new types of military equipment” and was informed about the progress of the war, his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian state news agency...

Live updates | Israeli strikes hit near Gaza City hospitals as more Palestinians flee south

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

Israeli strikes hit near hospitals in Gaza City as the military pushed deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants.The fighting is prompting increasing numbers of civilians to flee south, and growing numbers of people have been living in and around hospitals, hoping it will be safer than their homes or United Nations shelters in the north, several of which have been hit repeatedly. Gaza’s largest city is the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas following its deadly Oct. 7 incursion in southern Israel that set off the war, now in its second month.The number of Palestinians killed in the war has risen to over 10,800, including more than 4,400 children, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said. In the occupied West Bank, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed in the violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the milita...

British economy flatlines in third quarter of the year, update shows ahead of budget statement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The British economy flatlined in the third quarter of the year, official figures showed Friday ahead of a budget statement from the government later this month that it hopes will bolster growth in the run-up to national elections.The Office for National Statistics said growth in the July-to-September period was zero compared to the previous three-months. All sectors, such as manufacturing and construction, broadly showed the same subdued picture.Despite the uninspiring headline figure, the quarterly outcome was slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations for a modest decline in output.The British economy, like many others particularly in the world, is facing headwinds in the form of higher interest rates, which are aimed at taming inflation.Last week, the Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at the 15-year high of 5.25% and indicated that borrowing costs will likely remain at these elevated levels for a while to get inflation back to its target of 2...

Chill in the air Friday-Saturday, but a string of 60° temps starts Monday. With El Niño in progress, NASA warns of extra coastal flooding on the western coasts of the Americas.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

Starts warming up a little in the afternoon Sunday, but by Monday, a string of 60° temperatures start that could include some mid-60s by the middle of next week toward Wednesday and ThursdayNovember's off to a milder than normal start averaging 3.5° above normal. Despite that surplus, the month is running 5.2° cooler than the opening 9 days of November a year ago.  The official high temp hit 70 on this date a year ago.Northwest winds through the atmosphere are circulating chillier air into the Midwest and the Chicago area.  Temps Thursday night dip into the upper 20s in normally cooler locations away from the city and Lake Michigan and to the 36 in the city proper. Coolest days so far this autumn to hit Friday-SaturdayBoth Friday and Saturday (Veteran's Day) are to see temps hard pressed to make 50-degrees —making them the coolest days here since the spell of chilly weather which produced the Halloween snow squalls more than a week ago.BUT THE PATTERN SHIFTS BACK TO A...

EU services production: Up by 0.3% in August

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

In August 2023, the production of services (excluding financial and public services) increased by 0.3% in the EU and by 0.5% in the eurozone compared with July 2023. Compared with August 2022, services production increased by 2.4% in the EU and by 2.9% in the eurozone.This information comes from data on services production published by Eurostat. For more details on the production of the different services industries, consult the Statistics Explained article on the services production index.Source dataset: sts_sepr_mThe index of services production (ISP) is a business indicator which measures the monthly changes of the production volume of the services industries (excluding financial and public services).More information Statistics Explained article on services production (volume) index overview Thematic section on short-term business statistics Database on short-term business statisticsIf you have any queries, please visit the contact page.

EU plan aimed at fighting climate change to go to final votes, even if watered down

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union institutions and conservationists on Friday gave a conditional and guarded welcome to a major plan to better protect nature and fight climate change in the 27-nation bloc. The plan is a key part of the EU’s vaunted European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues. Yet it has had an extremely rough ride through the EU’s complicated approval process and only a watered down version will now proceed to final votes. Late Thursday’s breakthrough agreement between parliament and EU member states should have normally been the end of the approval process. But given the controversy the plan had previously stirred, the final votes – normally a rubberstamp process – could still throw up some hurdles. The plan has lost some of its progressive edge during negotiations over the summer because of fierce opposition in the ...

Philip Pullman is honored in Oxford, and tells fans when to expect his long-awaited next book

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

OXFORD, England (AP) — Fans of Philip Pullman have been waiting almost five years for the final instalment in the author’s sextet of books about his intrepid heroine Lyra and her adventures in multiple worlds. They won’t have to wait too much longer.Pullman says he has written 500 pages of a 540-page novel to conclude the “Book of Dust” trilogy, and it should be published next year — though he still doesn’t know what it’s called.“I haven’t got a title yet,” Pullman told The Associated Press in his home city of Oxford, where he was honored Thursday with the Bodley Medal. “Titles either come at once or they take ages and ages and ages. I haven’t found the right title yet — but I will.”The medal, awarded by Oxford University’s 400-year-old Bodleian Libraries, honors contributions to literature, media or science. Its previous recipients include World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, physicist Stephen Hawking and novelists Hilary Mantel, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith and Colm Tóibín...

China denies accusations of forced assimilation and curbs on religious freedom in Tibet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A government official from China’s Tibetan region on Friday rejected allegations of forced assimilation and curbs on religious freedom, while stressing that Tibetan Buddhism should adapt to the Chinese context.Xu Zhitao, vice chairman of the Tibet region government, defended a boarding school system that overseas activists have said takes children away from their parents and their Tibetan communities. He said China has opened the schools to improve education for children from remote areas.“The claim that Tibetan children are forced to go to boarding schools is deliberate smearing with an ulterior motive,” he said at a news conference to release an official report on the Communist Party’s policies in Tibet.The report extolled progress in economic development, social stability and environmental protection under Communist Party rule. China has built highways and high-speed railways through the mountainous region and promoted tourism as a way to boost in...

Dignitaries attend funeral of ex-Finnish President Ahtisaari, peace broker and Nobel laureate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Foreign dignitaries gathered in Finland’s capital on Friday to bid farewell to former President Martti Ahtisaari, including leaders of countries where he helped reach peace accords. Ahtisaari, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008, died Oct. 16 at the age of 86.More than 800 dignitaries and guests, including Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Namibian President Hage Geingob, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, and the former leaders of Indonesia and its Free Aceh rebel movement, are attending the ceremony at the Helsinki Cathedral.Ahtisaari helped reach peace accords related to Serbia’s withdrawal from Kosovo in the late 1990s, Namibia’s bid for independence in the 1980s, and autonomy for Aceh province in Indonesia in 2005. He was also involved in the Northern Ireland peace process in the late 1990s, being tasked with monitoring the IRA’s disarmament process.He later founded the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, aimed at preventing an...

In The News for today: More Canadians added to Gaza exit list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:31 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…Canadians and families added to Gaza exit listSome 266 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their family members had their names added to the list of foreign passport holders allowed to exit the Gaza Strip today. Officials at the Rafah border crossing into Egypt were expected to start processing the latest batch of people looking to flee the latest Israel-Hamas conflict around 7 a.m. local time.Another 32 people connected to Canada were able to leave the Gaza Strip on Thursday, after an initial 75 citizens, permanent residents and family members made the trip on Tuesday.Global Affairs Canada has not yet issued a statement on the latest update, but said, as of late Thursday, 550 more people were still hoping to leave the territory.The White House announced on Thursday that Israel agreed to put in place a daily four-hour “humanitarian pause” on ...