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‘They have been sent to death’: Home commissioner on migrants’ journeys to EU

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

A perilous sea route from eastern Libya to Europe taken by thousands of migrants, including hundreds involved in a fatal shipwreck Wednesday, has seen an increase of vessels carrying migrants by nearly 600 percent in 2023 alone, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson told POLITICO. “They have not been sent to the EU, they have been sent to death,” she said. In what the U.N migration agency IOM called “one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean,” the overcrowded fishing boat sank while attempting to reach Italy. It refused help from a Greek coast guard boat, Greek authorities said. The boat sank just days after EU interior ministers reached a deal to unblock key issues in long-disputed migration reform. At least 79 people died in the fatal wreck but a joint statement from the IOM and the U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated hundreds are dead and missing. Johansson skirted a question about whether Frontex, the European Border and Coast...

How Orioles left-hander Cole Irvin found himself — and trust in his sinker — after ‘humbling’ demotion to Triple-A

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

Cole Irvin’s biggest change after his stint in the minor leagues was evident during the first inning of his first start back in the majors.Irvin, a left-hander the Orioles acquired in the offseason to help anchor their rotation, stumbled out of the gate and was demoted to Triple-A in mid-April. He returned Saturday with the opportunity — now that Grayson Rodriguez is down in Norfolk after struggling — to earn back his spot in Baltimore’s rotation.He opened the game against the Kansas City Royals with a sinker. And then another. And another. Eight of his first 11 pitches were sinkers, while the other three were changeups. Irvin escaped the first inning thanks to a web gem from Anthony Santander and went on to pitch 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball for his first win as an Oriole.The heavy sinker usage was a stark contrast from his first three starts of the season when Irvin relied more on his four-seam fastball to little success. The renewed trust in his sinker wa...

Menace to society: galore of illicit drugs available in the EU as powerful new substances emerge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — New harmful illicit drugs are inundating a flourishing market for traffickers amid violence and corruption hurting local communities across Europe, the EU’s agency monitoring drugs and addiction said Friday.The grim finding was part of the agency’s annual report. It also said that drug users in Europe are now exposed to a wider range of substances of high purity as drug trafficking and use across the region have quickly returned to pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels.Cannabis remains the most-used illicit substance in Europe, the agency found, with some 22.6 million Europeans over the age of 15 having used it in the last year. Cocaine seizures are “historically high” and new synthetic drugs whose effects on health are not well documented are worrying officials.In 2022, 41 news drugs were reported for the first time by the agency.“I summarize this with the phrase: ‘everywhere, everything, everyone,’” said European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Di...

Commerce Department announces nearly $1 billion in grants for ‘middle mile’ internet access

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

The massive federal effort to expand internet access to every home in the U.S. took a major step forward on Friday with the announcement of $930 million in grants to shore up connections in remote parts of Alaska, rural Texas and dozens of other places where significant gaps in connectivity persist.The so-called middle mile grants, announced by the Department of Commerce, are meant to create large-scale networks that will enable retail broadband providers to link subscribers to the internet. Department officials likened the role of the middle mile — the midsection of the infrastructure necessary to enable internet access, composed of high-capacity fiber lines carrying huge amounts of data at very high speeds — to how the interstate highway system forged connections between communities.“These networks are the workhorses carrying large amounts of data over very long distances,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House’s infrastructure coordinator, in a media Zoom call. “They’re the ones t...

Drought and rising heat bring unusual wildfire warnings in northern Europe and Scotland

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — Summer is wildfire season in southern Europe, but this year the continent’s north is also at risk, with forest fire warnings in effect across the Nordic and Baltic countries.A lack of rain and rising temperatures have led to dangerously dry conditions in the region, leading to worries of a repeat of the summer of 2018 when major wildfires swept across Sweden in particular.Small wildfires are already burning in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and experts worry it could get much worse unless there’s significant rainfall in coming weeks.Unlike the sun-soaked Mediterranean countries, which have to deal with wildfires every summer, the phenomenon is rare in the countries of northern Europe, where summers are normally cool and wet by comparison.“These countries are relatively new to drought problems,” said Niclas Hjerdt, head of hydrological forecasting at Sweden’s weather agency SMHI. “We usually have an excess of water up here in northern Europe and Scand...

Stock market today: World shares track Wall Street rally, Tokyo’s benchmark at 33-year high

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced in Europe and Asia on Friday after a broad-based rally on Wall Street. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices wobbled lower after gaining more than 3% on Thursday. Germany’s DAX added 0.2% to 16,328.40 and the CAC 40 in Paris surged 0.6% to 7,337.98. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,642.77. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged less than 0.1% higher. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index closed at a 33-year high after the Bank of Japan wrapped up a policy meeting by keeping its ultra-lax monetary stance unchanged, as expected. It is a standout among central banks, most of which have sought to rein in inflation by raising interest rates. The key Japanese rate has stayed at minus 0.1% for a decade and policymakers have indicated they are not convinced that current inflation, which finally has surpassed the BOJ’s target of about 2%, will be sustained. “With extremely high uncertai...

Mass of rock slides down mountainside above evacuated Swiss village, narrowly misses settlement

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A large mass of rock slid down a mountainside above a Swiss village that was evacuated last month, stopping just short of the settlement, authorities said Friday.Brienz, in the southeastern Graubuenden region of Switzerland, was evacuated on May 12 after geology experts warned that the Alpine rock looming over the village could break loose. In recent days, local officials said rock movements on the slope were accelerating.Much of the rock mass tumbled toward Brienz between 11 p.m. and midnight on Thursday night, the local council said. It added that there was no evidence of damage to the village and the rockslide stopped just short of it, leaving a “meters-high deposit” in front of the school building.It wasn’t immediately clear how much of the 1.9 million cubic meters (67 million cubic feet) of rock that had been at risk of breaking away actually came loose, but the local council said it appeared to be a large part of the material.Authorities stepped the alert l...

Biden will mark the anniversary of a gun safety law signed after the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a year ago, President Joe Biden signed the first significant piece of federal gun safety legislation in nearly three decades.It was a good start, Biden has said, but it didn’t go far enough.On Friday, the Democratic president will speak at a summit in Connecticut highlighting how the sweeping law has been implemented so far. He’ll also use it as a moment to push for universal background checks and the banning of so-called “assault weapons.” Those are part of a 2024 political platform that was unthinkable to Democrats as recently as Barack Obama’s term. The gathering is being led by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and major gun safety groups hoping to build on recent progress.“We actually had it wrong for a long time. We left an opportunity on the table for decades,” Murphy said of the push for gun safety legislation.Even before the Sandy Hook massacre in Murphy’s state in 2012 spurred him to action, there was a mythology around Democratic el...

German police appeal for witness footage of attack in which Americans were thrown into Alpine gorge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Police in southern Germany are appealing for further pictures and videos taken by witnesses of an attack near Neuschwanstein castle in which an American man allegedly pushed two women down a steep slope, killing one of them. A suspect was arrested following the attack.German news agency dpa quoted police Friday saying that they have so far only received about a dozen submissions on a specially created website, but assume much more footage was taken by tourists present at the site at the time on Wednesday.“We are looking for photographs which, by chance, show two young women and a man (approx. 30 years old) who were staying east of the Marienbruecke,” Kempten police said on their website. “These persons may have been walking together or separately.”The Marienbruecke, or Mary’s Bridge, is a popular vantage point for photos of Neuschwanstein, the most famous of the castles built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th century. According to the initial police invest...

Bill Gates meets Chinese president Xi Jinping on China visit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:57:00 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping just days after a visit to Beijing by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The state broadcaster CCTV showed Xi saying he was happy to see Gates, who he called an “old friend,” after three years without meeting during the pandemic. “I believe that the foundation of Sino-U.S. relations lies in the people,” Xi said to Gates. “Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.”Gates told Xi he was “very honored” to meet with Xi. The visits by leading foreign business people have coincided with efforts by the ruling Communist Party to revive investor interest in China’s slowing economy. Apple CEO Tim Cook visited China in March. Tensions between the U.S. and China have festered in recent years, but recently the two sides have held talks on trade and other issues. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expecte...