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UK prime minister reviewing ‘bully’ report on top deputy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was reviewing a long-awaited report he received Thursday on whether his top deputy bullied civil servants. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputy prime minister, has denied multiple complaints that he was overly demanding and that he belittled and demeaned his staff. He said he “behaved professionally at all times,” but would resign if the bullying complaints were upheld.Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, said the prime minister received the report on Raab’s behavior Thursday morning.“He is carefully considering the findings of the report before coming to a judgment,” Blain said.Raab, 49, was first elected to Parliament in 2010 and has served in senior government posts including justice secretary and foreign secretary. Appointed deputy prime minister under Boris Johnson, he briefly took charge of the government when Johnson was hospitalized with COVID-19 in April 2020.The report is the latest ethics headache for Sunak, who vowed to res...

Sudan’s truce falters, as Egypt repatriates army personnel

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Egypt on Thursday repatriated dozens of its military personnel who had been held by Sudan’s paramilitary force, which is locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese army to control the strategic African country.The latest attempt at a cease-fire between the rival Sudanese forces faltered as gunfire rattled the capital of Khartoum. As global pressure to stop the violence failed, Japan and the Netherlands flew transport planes closer to the conflict-battered nation ahead of a possible evacuation of their citizens. Egyptian air force technicians had been detained by fighters from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces after the group attacked Merowe airport, north of the capital. A close ally of Sudan’s army, Egypt said the personnel were there for training and joint exercises. Fighting soon after erupted around the country between the RSF and Sudan’s army.Egypt’s army said in a statement Thursday that all its technical crews had been flown ...

Hungary adds honey, other products to Ukraine import ban

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will add honey and certain meat products to a list of food items it has temporarily banned from being imported from Ukraine in an effort to relieve market pressures on Hungarian farmers, a government minister said Thursday.Along with honey and meat, Hungary’s government has banned the import of 25 Ukrainian products including grains, oil seeds, flour, and cooking oil until June 30, minister Gergely Gulyás told a news conference. The government will also require shipments of those products coming from third countries to be monitored as they enter Hungary to make sure they aren’t coming from Ukraine, he said. The import ban announced on Saturday came in response to what the government says is a glut of Ukrainian agricultural products on the Hungarian market which has made it impossible for Hungarian farmers to remain competitive.Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria have taken similar steps in the last week, arguing that their agricultural sectors had be...

Judge orders Tunisian Islamist leader to stay in custody

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A Tunisian investigative judge has ordered that influential Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi remain in custody, his party said Thursday on its official social media.The Ennahdha party denounced in a statement on Facebook the “unjust imprisonment” of its leader, after Ghannouchi was arrested by police Monday. On its English-language Twitter account, the party said Ghannouchi has been charged with conspiracy against state security and ordered to be imprisoned pending trial.Ghannouchi, 81, is the most prominent critic of President Kais Saied. He served as speaker of Tunisia’s parliament until Saied dissolved the body last July and seized most executive powers in the North African country — a move that Ghannouchi and other opponents call a coup. He has been detained for questioning a number of times in the past, but the circumstances of his latest detention suggested that this time was more serious.Tunisia’s official TAP news agency reported earlier this week that...

Relief options if you’re in debt from your kid’s education

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

In January, the Department of Education unveiled details of a repayment plan overhaul that could halve monthly payments for many federal student loan borrowers. But one group, the 3.7 million parents who owe parent PLUS loans, won’t benefit. Policymakers have long excluded parent PLUS loans from most relief, though the program looks much different today than it did during its 1980 debut.While parent PLUS loans were initially intended as a tool for well-off families, says Robert Kelchen, a higher education professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, they’ve increasingly become the loan of last resort for lower-income families. Parents, who can borrow up to the total cost of attendance per child (minus other federal aid) with PLUS loans, use the loans to fill funding gaps after their student hits the borrowing limit of no more than $7,500 per year from the government.Parent PLUS loans come with higher interest rates and higher origination fees than undergraduate federal stude...

Two women stabbed during fight between group of people in Etobicoke

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

Two women are in hospital after they were stabbed during a fight in Etobicoke.Police say a group of people were seen fighting in the area of Manitoba Street and Legion Road, near the Gardiner Expressway and Park Lawn Road, just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.Two women ended up being stabbed during the altercation. They were brought to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.Police say the suspect and the victims are known each other.There is no word on any arrests and no suspect information has been made available.STABBING:Manitoba St + Legion Rd North7:58 p.m.– Reports of an altercation– Two females suffered non-life-threatening stab wounds– The victims were transported to the hospital for treatment– No suspect info – Anyone w/info contact @TPS22Div 416-808-2200#GO869847^lb— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) April 20, 2023

4 protesters against China’s COVID policy released on bail

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Officials in Beijing have released four women on bail who were arrested for joining rare nationwide protests in late November against China’s tough anti-coronavirus policies, an activist said.One of the women, former book editor Cao Zhixin, had recorded a video before her detention saying, “If you’re watching this, it means that I have been taken away by the police.”She and her friends Li Yuanjing, Zhai Dengrui and Li Siqi were detained in Beijing in December and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vague charge often used against dissidents, according to Human Rights Watch.All four were released Thursday on bail, according to a Chinese activist who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of government reprisals.Cao and a group of friends had joined a protest that was part of a burst of nationwide demonstrations against China’s tough “zero COVID” policy, a rare display of direct defiance against the central government, af...

EU lawmakers greenlight migration plan, set clock ticking

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Thursday approved a series of proposals aimed at ending the yearslong standoff over how best to manage migration, a conundrum that has provoked one of the bloc’s biggest political crises.The proposals — passed in a series of votes by a roughly two-thirds majority — include an emergency plan that would oblige the 27 EU nations to help one of their number should that country’s reception capacities be overwhelmed by the sudden arrival of people hoping to enter.The measures make up the European Parliament’s position for negotiations with the EU member countries and set a clock ticking. The member countries now have a year to finally reform their creaking asylum system before Europe-wide elections are held in May 2024.Should they fail to do so, the project might have to be abandoned or completely overhauled as it’s taken up by the next European Commission — the EU’s executive branch — and the new members of parliament.“If we miss th...

About a dozen freight train cars derail in Blue Island

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (AP) — About 15 cars of a freight train derailed Wednesday night just south of Chicago.No injuries or leaks were reported and no hazardous materials were involved in the derailment around 9:30 p.m. in Blue Island, CSX said in a statement.CSX said 13 cars derailed. Blue Island police said one of 15 cars that derailed possibly is a tanker.The cause of the derailment was under investigation. Crews worked Thursday morning to clear the derailed cars. Missing Navy sailor recovered from Lake Michigan in Waukegan Recent derailments across the U.S. have raised concern about rail safety.A March 30 BNSF derailment in southwestern Minnesota forced about 800 people from their homes. Ten cars hauling ethanol were among 23 that came off the tracks.A Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment outside East Palestine, Ohio, released hazardous chemicals that burned. Roughly half the town of about 5,000 people had to evacuate.

SpaceX to make 2nd attempt at launching biggest rocket

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:36:38 GMT

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) — SpaceX prepared to launch the biggest and most powerful rocket Thursday, working nonstop after the first shot at a test flight fizzled earlier in the week.The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship was poised to blast off from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. SpaceX’s Elon Musk gave 50-50 odds of the spacecraft reaching orbit on its debut.None of the rocket will be recovered. Instead, if all goes well, the first-stage booster, dubbed Super Heavy, would drop into the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft on top would continue eastward, passing over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans before ditching near Hawaii. The whole flight, if successful, would last just 1 1/2 hours. SpaceX stands down from Starship test flight The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars. NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, and rich tourists are already booking lunar flybys.A stuck booster...