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House has gaveled into session ahead of pivotal election for speaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House of Representatives is set to vote on Jim Jordan’s nomination for speaker on Tuesday afternoon, two weeks after the chamber ousted Kevin McCarthy from the top spot.Jordan has scrambled to shore up the votes needed to clinch the speakership in the closely divided chamber. He can likely only lose a few GOP votes to win the nod.What to knowJim Jordan’s rapid rise has been cheered by Trump and the far rightHow the vote for a new speaker worksScalise ends bid to become speaker as holdouts refuse to back himMcCarthy was an early architect of the GOP majority that became his downfallSpeaker McCarthy ousted in historic House vote‘Out of one may one emerge’Members of the House are getting settled in for what is expected to be multiple rounds of votes for speaker.A handful of Republicans are still opposed to Jordan, but his allies think they will break from their opposition as they go through multiple rounds and come under intense pressure to elect a...

Margate teacher arrested for allegedly roughing up kindergarten student

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

A Margate elementary school teacher was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a five-year-old kindergarten student at Margate Elementary School, officials said. The incident occurred on Oct. 10 and was captured by school surveillance cameras.According to police, surveillance footage showed the victim seated on the floor with a group of other students before the start of class. The altercation began when the student threw a piece of paper in the direction of another student. At that point, police said, 53-year-old Khadijah Muhammad, who was not the victim’s teacher but was serving in the capacity of a hall monitor, approached the student in an aggressive manner and physically grabbed him by his left wrist.Muhammad then lifted the student off the ground by his arms, twisted his arms, and grabbed him by the back of his shirt while forcefully shoving him across the hallway, police said. During the two-minute altercation, Muhammad tore the jacket off the student’s back ...

Inside Biden’s decision to secretly send longer-range US missiles to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

It was mid-July, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan was worried. Ukrainian forces were struggling to penetrate Russian front lines in a slow-moving counteroffensive, and time was running out to retake significant territory before a renewed Russian offensive in the fall.Sullivan told his team to come up with options for additional weapons the U.S. could send to Kyiv that could help Ukrainian forces hit vulnerable targets deep inside Russia’s defensive lines.Working together with the Defense Department, the National Security Council team came up with an idea. While the U.S. military’s existing stocks of the long-range Army Tactical Missile System were in short supply, the U.S. could send the medium-range version, carrying warheads containing hundreds of cluster bomblets that could hit targets 100 miles away.The administration’s move to send the Anti-Personnel/Anti-Materiel, or APAM, an older version of the ATACMS that Ukraine had long sought, was kept secret for weeks&nb...

Telecom cable between Sweden and Estonia was damaged

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

Swedish authorities said Tuesday an underwater telecommunication cable between Sweden and Estonia was damaged earlier this month, around the same time Finland reported a gas pipeline leak.“At present, we cannot say what caused the damage, but we can say that it occurred in temporal connection with the previously known damage,” said Swedish Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin on X after a joint press conference with Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson, the Swedish navy chief and the Coast Guard chief.Bohlin said the incident reportedly occurred around the same time Finland reported a Balticconnector gas pipeline leak and damage to a communications cable between Finland and Estonia on October 8.While an investigation into the leak is still ongoing, Finnish officials have said a “state actor” could be responsible and that damage to both the gas pipeline and communication cable was likely to have been caused by “external activity.” Some have pointed their fingers at...

EU energy ministers break deadlock on power market reform

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

EU energy ministers today reached a provisional compromise on reforming the bloc’s electricity market, three EU diplomats said, breaking a months-long deadlock in talks that were held up by disagreements over the use of subsidies for energy investments.Talks had stalled for months due to Franco-German dispute over the use of state-backed investment schemes for clean energy projects. The schemes, known as Contracts for Difference (CfDs), allow governments to recoup profits from energy producers when electricity prices spike.At the heart of the dispute was a concern by Germany that the new rules would allow France to skim huge profits from its mammoth nuclear fleet — which powers 70 percent of its electricity — and redistribute these to its industry, giving it a competitive edge. Paris insisted energy policy is a sovereign choice and that the bloc benefits from its cheap atomic-powered electricity.In a concession to France, energy ministers today agreed that governments “m...

Franco-German disagreement stalls EU fiscal rules reform

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

LUXEMBOURG — France and Germany remain at odds over the EU’s plan to overhaul rules on government spending — making a bloc-wide deal by the end of the year still look some way off.Sparks flew between EU finance ministers when they discussed the matter in Luxembourg on Tuesday. The meeting ended without any sign of breaking the stalemate. The European Commission has made a priority of reforming the Stability and Growth Pact, designed to ensure governments don’t accumulate too much debt or maintain too high a deficit. Reaching an agreement between the EU’s 27 countries is urgent because the rules will be reapplied from next year after being suspended at the onset of the COVID pandemic. While there’s agreement on the broad outline of the reform and on the need to conclude it before the Commission’s mandate ends next year, the exact nature of the overhaul remains in dispute, with Paris and Berlin at opposite ends of the argument.At the behind-closed-doors meeting, fin...

Mother of Israeli woman in Hamas hostage video appeals for her release

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The mother of a young Israeli woman held by Hamas appealed for her release on Tuesday, calling the seizure of around 200 hostages by the Palestinian militant group “a crime against humanity.”Hamas’ military wing released a video on Monday showing a dazed Mia Schem, 21, having her arm wrapped with bandages. It was the first sign of life from any of the hostages since Gaza-based gunmen smashed through border fortifications on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 people in Israel.“I didn’t know if she’s dead or alive until yesterday,” her mother, Keren Schem, said at a news conference. “All I knew is that she might be kidnapped. I’m begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a party, to a festival party to have some fun. Now she’s in Gaza.”Mia Schem was seized at a desert rave just over the border from Gaza that became the site of what is believed to be the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history. At least 260 people were...

Police search for suspect after robbery at convenience store in Plympton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

An investigation got underway in Plympton over the weekend after police said a man assaulted two employees at a local convenience store and fled the scene with cash. Plympton police in a statement late Monday morning said officers responded to Plympton Gas and Convenience on Main Street around 8 p.m. Sunday after receiving a report of an armed robbery. Once on scene, police said, officers determined a male suspect first entered the store and displayed what appeared to be a handgun. Police said the suspect left through the back of the store after assaulting the two employees and taking cash. Plympton police said the two employees were taken to an area hospital with minor injuries. A search got underway, in the meantime, as police looked for the suspect in this case. Police said the suspect is believed to be between 5’9” and 5`10” in height. He was believed to be wearing jeans, white shoes and a black hooded sweatshirt with a Reebok symbol on the right shoulder at ...

What to know about the deadly stabbings of a Palestinian mother and her 6-year-old in Illinois

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

By Chicago Tribune staffOn Saturday, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy named Wadea Al-Fayoume was killed after being stabbed 26 times in his suburban home. His mother also suffered dozens of stab wounds, and is hospitalized as she fights for her life.Law enforcement and authorities from Illinois’ Will County, where the attack occurred, determined it was a hate crime and that the mother and son’s landlord targeted them over the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.BRIDGEVIEW, ILLINOIS - OCTOBER 16: Six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume's casket is carried into a funeral service at the Mosque Foundation on October 16, 2023 in Bridgeview, Illinois. According to reports, Wadea was killed and his mother seriously wounded when her landlord, Joseph Czuba, attacked them because they were Muslim. Czuba has been arrested and charged with murder. (Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images)BRIDGEVIEW, ILLINOIS - OCTOBER 16: Oday Fayoumi (R) attends the funeral service for his...

Report: Levine, Click among external candidates for Red Sox GM role

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:49 GMT

The Red Sox search for a new head of baseball operations seems to evolve with each passing day, and though the club has been tight lipped about the process a picture is beginning to emerge of who is and isn’t in contention.According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Minnesota Twins general manager Thad Levine and former Houston Astros GM James Click are both candidates for the Red Sox position. Heyman reported that Levine is interviewing for the job, making him the second known candidate to interview after Red Sox assistant GM Eddie Romero, and Click is being considered as well.Levine is the No. 2 man to president of baseball operations Derek Falvey in Minnesota and was previously a top candidate for the top Philadelphia Phillies job that ultimately went to Dave Dombrowski. He took his current role after the 2016 season and since then has helped lead the Twins to four playoff appearances. This year the Twins went 87-75 to win the AL Central, snapped an 18-game playoff losing...