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Spain’s king asks Pedro Sánchez to form government

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

Spanish King Felipe VI on Tuesday ordered caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to attempt to form a government.Sánchez’s Socialist Party came second in July’s inconclusive national election, in which the center-right Popular Party won the most votes. Conservative leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo attempted to form a government but last week failed to obtain the majority support of the Spanish parliament needed to become prime minister.Socialist leader Sánchez, who has governed Spain since he led a successful no-confidence vote against conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in 2018, does not control enough seats in the parliament to govern on his own and will need to obtain the support of a slew of far-left and separatist parties in order to remain in power.Sánchez is widely expected to attempt to form a minority government with Yolanda Díaz’s far-left Sumar coalition, a successor of the Podemos party with which the Socialists governed during the previous legisl...

Turkey arrests dozens of suspected Kurdish militants after Ankara suicide bombing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

Turkey arrested 55 people suspected of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after a suicide bombing outside Ankara’s interior ministry.On Sunday, two militants attacked Turkey’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. The suicide bomber, identified as Hasan Oğuz, was a member of the PKK, which claimed responsibility for the attack. The other terrorist was “neutralized,” and two police officers were slightly injured, the government said. The PKK has been declared a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the U.S. In response, Turkish authorities carried out raids in 16 provinces leading to the arrest of 55 “suspected terrorist organization members,” Turkish Internal Affairs Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.Ankara also carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, destroying 20 PKK targets, Turkish media reported. In an interview Monday with Saudi channel Al-Hadath, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid condemned the Turkish air strikes, which “lea...

UK tech secretary attacks ‘creeping wokeism’ in scientific research

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

MANCHESTER, England — Watch out Tory leadership hopefuls, there’s another culture warrior in town.Gracing the main stage at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, the U.K.’s Science and Tech Secretary Michelle Donelan vowed to crackdown on the “creeping wokeism” she said is threatening scientific research.“We are the party of facts, we are the party of evidence, we are the party of scientific rigor, and I will stand up for these core values. But increasingly, thanks to the slow creep of wokeism, this guiding light that Thatcher referred to is under attack,” said Donelan, referring to a speech by former Prime Minister and Tory icon Margaret Thatcher to the United Nations in 1989, where she said scientific research must be used to “cast a light ahead, so that we can move step by step in the right direction.”Donelan said she would be launching a review of the use of gender and sex questions in scientific research and statistics, and would produce guidance within six months.“Keir...

Opening statements to get underway in trial of man accused of killing NH couple

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

Opening statements is set to get underway Tuesday for the trial of a 27-year-old man accused of murdering a New Hampshire couple on a hiking trail in April last year. Authorities said Stephen and Wendy Reid were shot and killed while out for a walk near their home. Their bodies were later discovered near a hiking trail three days after they were reported missing. Logan Clegg was arrested after a monthslong manhunt in South Burlington, Vermont in October and subsequently charged with several charges including second degree murder. Clegg has pleaded not guilty.

Column: The MLB postseason faces a Swiftian ratings challenge — going head to head vs. new NFL icon Taylor Swift

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

October always has been synonymous with baseball.The former national pastime televises its postseason games for four weeks on various networks, culminating in the World Series that now creeps into November. It’s the dessert fans have been waiting for all season, and by adding a third wild-card team to each league in 2022 and making that round best of three instead of single elimination, MLB hopes for more drama and many more eyeballs.But baseball soon could face a challenge unlike any other in modern TV sports history.Going head to head against NFL games almost always has been a losing proposition for the postseason schedule makers who decide which games go into afternoon or prime-time slots.The Taylor Swift phenomenon only adds to baseball’s ratings anxiety.Swift’s performance on Sept. 24, jumping up and down in a super suite while cheering on her new beau, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, helped Fox’s ratings zoom for the Chiefs blowout of the...

Tropical Storm Philippe pelts northeast Caribbean with heavy rains and forces schools to close

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical storm Philippe dropped heavy rains in the northeast Caribbean on Tuesday, forcing governments to close schools in the region as forecasters warned of flash flooding.The storm was located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Anguilla on Tuesday morning and had winds of up to 50 mph (85 kph). It was moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.A tropical storm warning was still in effect for Barbuda and Anguilla after Philippe made landfall in Barbuda late Monday. A tropical storm watch was in effect for the British Virgin Islands. Forecasters warned that the strongest winds and rains would be felt by islands located south of the storm’s center as Philippe moves north of the Leeward Islands on Tuesday.Officials in the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda closed schools and government offices, while those in the French Caribbean territories of St. Martin and St. Barts closed schools.Mean...

Michigan school shooter’s parents cleared to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court turned down an appeal Tuesday, clearing the way for the parents of a teenager who killed four fellow students in a shooting at Oxford High School to face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of making a gun available to Ethan Crumbley and ignoring his mental health needs.The state appeals court in March said the couple could face trial, and the Supreme Court said it would let that decision stand.The shooter killed Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling at Oxford High, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of Detroit, in November 2021. Six students and a teacher were also wounded.Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder. A judge last week said he is eligible for life in prison without parole.Attorneys for the parents insist the school shooting was not foreseeable. They acknowledge that bad decisions were made but not ones that should rise to charges of involunt...

Frequent price increases by businesses contributing to sticky inflation: BoC official

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

MONTREAL — Bank of Canada deputy governor Nicolas Vincent says businesses are still raising their prices more frequently than they did before the pandemic, which is contributing to higher-than-expected inflation.Vincent made the comments Tuesday in his first speech as deputy governor to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.According to his prepared remarks, the deputy governor says price increases have been larger than normal and more frequent than before the pandemic – a trend that has persisted.“We believe that this behaviour by firms – both here and abroad – is intimately linked to the stronger-than-expected inflation we’ve seen,” Vincent said.Although he notes pricing behaviour by firms has been shifting closer to normal since the beginning of the year, that progress has been slow.Corporate profits have drawn a lot of attention post-pandemic, as some people have questioned the fairness of rising profits during a period of high inflation.The NDP has been e...

Swiss LGBTQ+ rights groups hail 60-day sentence for polemicist who called journalist a ‘fat lesbian’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — LGBTQ+ groups hailed the 60-day jail sentence a court in Switzerland gave to a writer and commentator for deriding a journalist as a “fat lesbian” and other critical remarks.The Laussane court sentenced French-Swiss polemicist Alain Bonnet, who goes by Alain Soral, for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred on Monday. He was ordered to pay legal fees and fines totaling thousands of Swiss francs (dollars) in addition to the time behind bars. Soral lashed out at Catherine Macherel, a journalist for Swiss newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, in a Facebook video two years ago. He called her a “fat lesbian” and said Macherel’s work as a “queer activist” meant she was “unhinged,” according to Swiss public broadcaster RTS. “This court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland,” Murial Waeger, co-director of the lesbian activist group LOS, said in a statement. “The conviction of Al...

A deal to expedite grain exports has been reached between Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:04:17 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have agreed on a plan they hope will help expedite Ukrainian grain exports, officials said Tuesday, with needy countries beyond Europe potentially benefitting from speedier procedures.The deal means that grain inspections will shift from the Ukraine-Poland border to a Lithuanian port on the Baltic Sea, according to a statement from the Ukrainian farm ministry.The move seeks to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian exports through Polish territory, the statement said, without providing further details.From the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, where the inspections for pests and plant diseases will take place from Wednesday, the grain can be exported by sea around the world.While the stated goal is to hasten Ukrainian grain exports, the agreement may also help defuse tensions over grain prices between Ukraine and Poland a time when some international support for Kyiv’s efforts to throw back Russia’s invasion may be fraying.Agric...