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Green campaigners fear UK policy backlash after ULEZ keeps Uxbridge Tory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

LONDON — The Conservatives held off Labour by just 495 votes in last week’s Uxbridge and Ruislip by-election — and one hot topic tipped the scales in their direction.The Tories successfully turned the campaign for a House of Commons seat into a de facto referendum on the ultra-low emissions zone (ULEZ), a green tax levied on higher-polluting cars and vans by Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan. ULEZ extends beyond central London — including to Uxbridge — next month, handing the Conservatives a local issue they could use to batter their opponents, at a time when they’re otherwise languishing in the national polls. Green campaigners already worry that both parties will now decide to jettison policies aimed at both cleaning up the air and decarbonizing the economy — so-called net zero goals — for fear of alienating voters.“I don’t think there is any doubt that ULEZ was the reason that we lost the election in Uxbridge,” said Labour leader Keir Starmer on Sa...

Gunman who killed co-workers at New Zealand building site died from self-inflicted wound, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The gunman who killed two coworkers at a New Zealand construction site was injured during a shootout with police but died from a self-inflicted wound, police said Monday.The shooting Thursday closed part of downtown Auckland hours before the opening game of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, which was held under increased security. Detective Superintendent Ross McKay said the completed autopsies showed how the violence ended after 24-year-old Matu Reid had barricaded himself in an elevator shaft during the shootout with police.McKay said three workers injured in the shooting remained hospitalized in stable condition and were recovering well. He said the officer wounded in the shootout also remained hospitalized and “will have a long road to recovery.” Two other injured people were earlier released from hospital.Court records obtained by The Associated Press show Reid was serving a home detention sentence after being convicted of domestic violence...

Moscow, Crimea hit by drones as Russian forces bombard Ukraine’s south

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow early Monday that saw one of the drones fall near the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters, while the Russian military launched new strikes on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine.Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties when the drones struck two non-residential buildings. The Defense Ministry claimed that the military jammed both attacking drones, forcing them to crash. Russian media reported that one of the drones fell on the Komsomolsky highway near Moscow’s center, close to the main Defense Ministry building. Another drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting its upper floors.Ukrainian authorities didn’t immediately claim responsibility for the strike, which was the second drone attack on the Russian capital this month.In the previous attack on July 4, the Russian military said four of the five drones were downed by air defenses on ...

Netanyahu leaves hospital as Israel faces a key vote – and a crisis – over divisive legal changes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from the hospital Monday after an emergency heart procedure, facing an unprecedented national crisis ahead of parliament’s vote on the first major piece of legislation to remake the country’s justice system.Demonstrators, many of whom feel the very foundations of their country are being eroded by the government’s plan, stepped up their opposition, blocking a road leading up to parliament. Businesses shuttered their doors in protest of the vote.Driven by a governing coalition made up of ultranationalist and ultra-religious parties, the judicial overhaul has divided Israel, testing the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattling the cohesion of its powerful military and repeatedly drawing concern from even its closest ally, the United States.Efforts to find a last-ditch compromise were underway, with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog shuttling between the sides, including a meeting at the...

Iran targets e-commerce giant over photos of female employees without headscarves in new crackdown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have shut down one of the offices of the country’s biggest e-commerce company and launched judicial procedures after it published pictures online showing female employees not wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf, semi-official media reported.The move appears to be part of a new campaign launched last week to impose the Islamic dress code nearly a year after the morality police largely melted away in the face of widespread protests.Digikala, informally known as “Iran’s Amazon,” appears to have run afoul of the rules by posting pictures of a corporate gathering in which several female employees were not wearing the hijab.The company boasts more than 40 million active monthly users and hosts over 300,000 merchants. Iranians are largely cut off from international retailers like Amazon because of Western sanctions linked to the country’s disputed nuclear program.The website of Iran’s Hamshahri daily, which ...

Stock market today: Asian shares mixed as investors watch for Fed rate hike

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Monday, with Hong Kong’s benchmark sinking 2.2% following reports suggesting China’s leaders do not plan major stimulus measures to prop up slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy. U.S. futures edged lower and oil prices also fell. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its federal funds rate on Wednesday to its highest level since 2001. Investors are hoping that might be the final increase of the tightening cycle because inflation has been cooling since last summer. The federal funds rate started 2022 at virtually zero. A meeting this week of the powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party later this week had raised hope for more help for the slowing economy. While reports Monday said that was unlikely, the country’s economic planning agency disclosed detailed measures Monday to encourage private investment, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The National Development and Reform Commi...

Macron promotes French interests on a trip to South Pacific where US-China rivalry is intensifying

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The French president is heading to the South Pacific to make France’s voice heard in a region shaping up as a prime geopolitical battleground for China and the U.S.President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia comes as French forces take part in massive U.S.-Australian-led military exercises in the region. With French troops, citizens and resources spread across its Pacific territories, France wants to protect its own interests and project its power alongside like-minded democracies worried about China’s growing assertiveness.Macron starts Monday in the French archipelago of New Caledonia, trying to rebuild trust after voters rejected a string of independence referendums that exposed entrenched frustrations of native Kanaks and inequalities with the mainland, and divisions over management of the region’s rich nickel reserves. Negotiations are underway for a new status for the territory and its institutions. After Vanuatu, Macron’s...

Landslides block key roads in northern Pakistan, as the death toll from monthlong rains rises to 133

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Landslides triggered by torrential rains have blocked several key roads in northern Pakistan, stranding tourists and disrupting traffic, officials said Monday, as the death toll from weather-related incidents in the past month rose to at least 133.Thousands of tourists have thronged scenic tourist destinations in the north in recent days, ignoring warnings from the disaster management agency, which asked people last week to avoid unnecessary trips as ongoing monsoon rains can cause landslides and flash floods.Landslides caused by rain hit several roads in the northern districts of Chitral, Dir and Battagram in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday. Authorities were trying to clear roads to restore traffic in the mountainous areas, said Taimur Khan, a spokesperson for the provincial disaster management authority.At least 133 people have died in weather-related incidents across Pakistan since June 24 when monsoon rains began.Heavy rains have swollen t...

UN Command says it’s communicating with North Korea over detained US soldier

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The deputy commander of the U.N. Command said Monday it has started conversations with North Korea over an American soldier who ran into the North last week across the Koreas’ heavily armed border.Gen. Andrew Harrison said the process has started through communications line set under the armistice agreement that stopped the fighting of the 1950-53 Korean War. He said the well-being of Pvt. Travis King remains the command’s primary concern, but refused to provide more details, citing the sensitivity of the discussions. North Korea has remained publicly silent about King, who crossed the border last Tuesday while he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas. U.S. officials have expressed concern about his well-being and said previously that North Korea was ignoring their requests for information about him.The update came as South Korea’s military said a nuclear-propelled U.S. submarine arrived at a port on Jeju Island in the second deployment of ...

EU launches talks on €20 billion Ukraine military fund

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:45:51 GMT

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Thursday (20 July) proposed a €20 billion ($22.4bn) fund to pay for weapons, ammunition and military aid for Ukraine over four years, but the plan will need more scrutiny from EU governments before any decision is made.High Representative Josep Borrell (pictured) presented the proposal to EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels as part of an effort to put European support for Kyiv on a longer-term footing after more than a year of scrambling to respond to Russia's invasion.The proposal comes amid an international drive to give Ukraine long-term security assurances, as announced by members of the G7 on the sidelines of last week's NATO summit in Vilnius."We proposed the creation of a dedicated section under the European Peace Facility to provide up to €5bn a year for the next four years for the defence needs of Ukraine," Borrell told a news conference after the meeting."This is the evaluation of the needs and the cost of our long-term sec...