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Israel open to ‘tactical little pauses’ to let aid into Gaza, Netanyahu says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

Israel is considering small pauses in the fight against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday amid mounting international pressure to halt hostilities to let aid into the Gaza Strip.“There’ll be no cease-fire, general cease-fire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu told American broadcaster ABC News.“As far as tactical little pauses — an hour here, an hour there — we’ve had them before,” the prime minister added. “I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in; or our hostages, individual hostages to leave.”Israel has been under growing diplomatic pressure to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where it has launched a major offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the Palestinian militant group’s violent attacks, which killed more than 1,400 people on Israeli soil on October 7.During its surprise incursion, Hamas a...

Law and order and the economy are focus of the British government’s King’s Speech

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative government is setting out a pre-election policy slate including tougher sentences for criminals and measures to tame inflation and boost economic growth at the grand State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday.King Charles III will read out a speech, written by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, outlining its legislative plans for the next year.It’s almost certainly the last such speech before a national election, and Sunak’s first chance to set out major legislative plans since he became prime minister just over a year ago. The last session of Parliament opened in May 2022, when Boris Johnson was prime minister and Queen Elizabeth II sat on the throne.Charles became monarch when his mother died in September 2022 after a 70-year reign. He will deliver the first King’s — rather than Queen’s — Speech since 1951.The parliamentary opening ceremony is a spectacular pageant that reflects the two sides of Britain’s constitutional monarchy: royal pomp a...

New measures to curb migration to Germany agreed by Chancellor Scholz and state governors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — New, stricter measures to curb the high number of migrants coming to Germany were agreed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the 16 state governors in the early hours of Tuesday, reaching a compromise on an issue that has become a huge political problem for the government and a hot-button topic in society.The new measures include speeding up asylum procedures, benefit restrictions for asylum seekers and more financial aid from the federal government for the states and local communities dealing with the influx.Speaking early Tuesday after an overnight meeting that lasted several hours, Scholz called the agreement “a historical moment” — a remark that showed how much of a burden the topic had become for the government.Shelters for migrants and refugees have been filling up in Germany for months, and Scholz, who faces enormous pressure from the opposition and elsewhere to halt that trend, has said that “too many are coming.” The number of new asylum applications for the year to...

Japan’s Nintendo profits jump as its game sales get a boost from the hit Super Mario movie

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo reported an 18% rise in net profit for its first fiscal half on Tuesday, as sales continued to get a boost from its hit Super Mario movie, and the popularity of its software for various new video games.April-September profit at Nintendo Co., which didn’t break down quarterly results, totaled nearly 271.3 billion yen ($1.8 billion), up from 230 billion yen a year earlier. Sales surged 21% to 796 billion yen ($5.3 billion).Demand remained strong for Nintendo Switch game software, which got a healthy lift from the film starring the jumping plumber, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Among the games that sold well as a result of the film was “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,” which sold 3.2 million units during the period, for cumulative sales of 57 million games, Nintendo said.This year’s Super Mario movie is one of the top-selling animation films on record, second only to “Frozen II,” and the top animation film based on a video game.Also helping lift results was the popularity o...

Israel-Hamas war crowds crisis-heavy global agenda as Blinken, G7 foreign ministers meet in Japan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Fresh from a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shifted his intense diplomacy on the Israel-Hamas war to Asia on Tuesday, as he and his counterparts from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies began two days of talks in Japan.The devastating monthlong conflict in Gaza and efforts to ease the dire humanitarian impacts of Israel’s response to the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack were set to be a major focus of the meeting. Yet with the Russia-Ukraine war, fears North Korea may be readying a new nuclear test, and concerns about China’s increasing global assertiveness, it is far from the only crisis on the agenda.“Even as we are intensely focused on the crisis in Gaza, we’re also very much engaged and focused on the important work that we’re doing in the Indo-Pacific and in other parts of the world,” Blinken told reporters in Ankara, Turkey, before leaving the Middle East for Asia.In Tokyo, Blinken and foreign minister...

Live updates | Israel open to ‘little pauses’ as it bombards Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza “for an indefinite period” after its war with Hamas and expressed openness to “little pauses” in the current fighting to facilitate the release of hostages.His comments, in an interview that aired late Monday on ABC News, offered the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control over the territory that is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.Netanyahu ruled out any general cease-fire without the release of the more than 240 captives seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 raid into Israel, but he said he was open to “tactical little pauses.” U.S. President Joe Biden had raised the need for humanitarian pauses directly with Netanyahu on a call earlier Monday, but no agreement was reached, the White House said.The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 10,000, including more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in...

Stock market today: World shares are mostly lower after a mixed session on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares mostly fell in Europe and Asia on Tuesday after a mixed close on Wall Street, where wild recent moves calmed a bit at the beginning of a quiet week for data releases. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2% to 15,110.26 and the CAC 40 in Paris also fell 0.2%, to 7,002.53. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.1% to 7,410.08. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3%.Late Monday, office-sharing company WeWork confirmed it is seeking bankruptcy protection. Trading in its shares was halted Monday amid speculation over its restructuring plans. It’s a stunning decline for a one-time Wall Street darling that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world. The company’s shares cost more than $400 two years ago but now cost less than $1.In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.3% to 32,271.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 1.7% to 17,670.16 The Shanghai Composite index slipped less than 0.1% ...

Income inequality across the EU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

In 2022, the median equivalized disposable income in the EU was 18 706 purchasing power standards (PPS) per inhabitant, increasing from 18 011 PPS recorded in 2021. At the national level, the EU countries with the highest median disposable incomes in 2022 were Luxembourg (33,214 PPS), the Netherlands (25,437 PPS), Austria (25,119 PPS), Belgium (24,142 PPS), Denmark (23,244 PPS) and Germany (23,197 PPS). In contrast, Bulgaria (9,671 PPS), Slovakia (9,826 PPS), Romania (10,033 PPS), Hungary (10,217 PPS), and Greece (10,841 PPS) reported the lowest values.The median equivalised disposable income, expressed in the PPS, accounts for income distribution as well as household size and composition. The unit PPS considers the price-level variations, ensuring comparability across countries.More information Statistics Explained article on living conditions in Europe – income distribution and income inequality Thematic section on income and living conditions Da...

'Trial of Iran prison official in Stockholm: Conflict between opposition, regime has non-international character'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

During the appeal trial concerning the life sentence handed down by a lower court to a former Iranian regime prison official, new light was shed on the longstanding internal conflict in Iran. Evidence presented during the proceedings revealed that there has been an ongoing struggle between the resistance and the ruling theocracy since 1981, writes Shahin Gobadi.Kenneth Lewis, the attorney representing several plaintiffs in the appeal trial of Hamid Noury, a former prison official charged with participating in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988, asserted that the confrontation between the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Iranian regime does not constitute an international armed conflict. Noury, he argued, should be tried for crimes committed during a non-international armed conflict. Lewis highlighted that this internal strife between the MEK and the Iranian authorities began on June 20, 1981, with the quelling of peaceful prote...

Dear Abby: I like to video people who are behaving badly

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:29 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I have some advice for your readers who write regarding problems with how others behave badly or are verbally abusive or inappropriate toward them. Hopefully, it will help someone.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: The rest of the book club is appalled by the woman I invited Advice | Dear Abby: My sister-in-law always has ‘other plans.’ Should I stop asking? Advice | Dear Abby: I haven’t told my wife what I know. Should I stick around? Advice | Dear Abby: I just wanted to sit in their house for a few hours, and they wouldn’t let me in Advice | Dear Abby: I just learned my brother knew a secret that would have changed my life I suggest recording video of the offending individual while it’s happening, and then showing them the video later when they are calm/sober/receptive. If the behavior is drug- or alcohol-driven, this can show the person they’re not fun a...