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A record Russian budget will boost defense spending, shoring up Putin’s support ahead of election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Russia’s State Duma took a step forward Wednesday towards approving its biggest-ever federal budget which will increase spending by around 25% in 2024, with record amounts going on defense.Defense spending is expected to overtake social spending next year for the first time in modern Russian history, at a time when the Kremlin is keen to shore up support for President Vladimir Putin as Russia prepares for a presidential election in March.Record low unemployment, higher wages and targeted social spending should help the Kremlin ride out the domestic impact of pivoting the economy to a war footing, but could pose a problem in the long term, analysts say. The draft budget “is about getting the war sorted in Ukraine and about being ready for a military confrontation with the West in perpetuity,” said Richard Connolly, an expert on Russia’s military and economy at the Royal United Services Institute in London.“This amounts to the wholesale remilitarization...

A Moroccan cobalt mine denies claims of arsenic-contaminated local water. Automakers are concerned

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — A mining company controlled by Morocco ‘s royal family on Wednesday denied claims that operations at a site used to mine minerals for car batteries were causing hazardous levels of arsenic to appear in the local water supply.The Managem Group in a statement denied the findings published in German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung that pointed to increased levels of arsenic in the water near its century-old cobalt mine at Bou Azzer in the central Moroccan desert.The newspaper’s investigation, published last weekend, found those levels of arsenic were hazardous.At the mine itself, they found almost 19,000 micrograms of arsenic per liter in the water. In Zaouit Sidi Blal, a date-farming community 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) from the mine, they found just over 400 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water. That’s roughly 44 times the World Health Organization’s guideline value for lifelong consumption, the investigation said.Arsenic is a toxic chemical found in...

Greece fines local branches of J&J and Colgate-Palmolive for allegedly breaching a profit cap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities on Wednesday announced fines totaling 1.67 million euros ($1.81 million) on the local branches of two U.S.-based health care and consumer products giants for alleged breaches of a profit cap imposed amid Greece’s cost-of-living crisis.The Development Ministry said Johnson & Johnson Hellas was fined 1 million euros and Colgate-Palmolive Hellas 672,000 euros. It didn’t provide further details on the alleged breaches.The fines were imposed under a law adopted in July that caps gross profits for a broad range of key consumer goods and services — mostly in the food and health sectors — until the end of 2023. The law stipulates that the gross profit per unit cannot exceed that from before Dec. 31, 2021.Successive polls have identified the cost-of-living crisis, largely triggered by the war in Ukraine, as a major concern for most Greeks, with the overwhelming majority saying it has forced them to reduce purchases of basic goods. Toget...

Prime Minister’s Office gives mandate letters to two ministers, months after shuffle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

OTTAWA — The Prime Minister’s Office has quietly published mandate letters for two ministers who were given new portfolios in the Liberal government’s summer cabinet shuffle, but it won’t be updating its prescriptions for jobs that already existed. The letters for the ministers in charge of the newly minted citizens’ services and sport and physical activity portfolios were posted online earlier this week, and serve as a guide to what the prime minister wants them to accomplish.Other ministers are not getting new mandate letters despite many of them having switched jobs, even though the last batch of instructions was given in 2021 during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prime minister’s press secretary, Mohammad Hussain, says the new letters build on earlier commitments, and ministers are expected to deliver on their priorities.The letter for Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech says he should seek to improve the way the government deliv...

Advocates scramble to aid homeless migrant families after Massachusetts caps emergency shelter slots

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Advocates scrambling to find shelter for homeless migrant families newly arrived to Massachusetts say they’re frustrated with a lack of good options after the state capped the number of family shelter spots and created a wait list.The cap has tied the hands of those trying to help families seeking refuge from increasingly cold nights, dumping those families on a kind of housing merry-go-round from airport lounges to hospital waiting rooms and walk-in church shelters.“Right now there’s no place to send them,” Cherlin Dubon, a triage case specialist at La Colaborativa in Chelsea, Massachusetts said of homeless families seeking a safe place to stay.“What was not done right was having a plan,” she said. “They could have done better.”Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, who created the cap, said the state is working with local groups to provide temporary spaces for those on the wait list. The cap and wait list took effect last week when the state crossed a threshold set by H...

Slate Office REIT suspends distributions, plans asset sale; units plunge 20%

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

TORONTO — Units in Slate Office REIT sank 20 per cent after the trust suspended its monthly cash distributions and announced a plan to sell a large part of its portfolio of properties.Slate units were down 21 cents at 81 cents in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.The trust said late Tuesday that its management and board has identified non-core assets for sale comprising about 40 per cent of its total gross leasable area.Slate also said the move to suspend its distribution is expected to provide it with an additional $10.2 million of cash annually that will be used to repay debt and fund its ongoing operations.The changes came as Slate reported a net loss of $34.7 million in its quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $18.4 million in the same quarter last year, while rental revenue held steady at $51 million.The trust’s funds from operations amounted to $4.8 million or six cents per unit for the quarter, down from $10.3 million or 12 cents per unit a year earlier....

A cargo plane returns to JFK Airport after a horse escapes its stall, pilot dumps 20 tons of fuel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A cargo plane headed from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Belgium had to return to JFK after a horse escaped its stall and got loose in the hold, according to air traffic control audio.The Boeing 747 operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic had just started its flight across the Atlantic Ocean on Nov. 9 when the pilot radioed air traffic control in Boston and said that a horse on board had escaped its stall.“We don’t have a problem as of flying-wise but we need to return, return back to New York,” the pilot said, according to the audio obtained by You Can See ATC. “We cannot get the horse back secured.”The controller responded, “Roger, you are cleared to Kennedy via radar vectors.”The pilot said that due to the plane’s weight, he had to dump 20 tons of fuel before going back to New York.The controller gave the OK and alerted nearby pilots about a “fuel dumping in progress approximately 10 miles west of Martha’s Vineyard.”The 747 pilot had one...

Kevin Hart will receive the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in comedy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Kevin Hart has been chosen to receive the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in American humor, capping a three-decade career that has seen him rise from the open mics of Philadelphia to become one of his generation’s most successful performers.Hart, 44, launched his career as a teenager performing at venues such as The Laff House in his native Philadelphia under the name of Lil Kev. He recalled his early stand-up performances as a string of brutal failures that included being booed off the stage multiple times and at one point, he claimed, having a piece of chicken thrown at him on stage. Gradually, Hart honed a signature style that combined his diminutive stature, expressive face and motormouth delivery and made him a wildly successful touring act. He made his movie debut in the 2002 film “Paper Soldiers” and came to mainstream fame through a string of scene-stealing cameos in mega-hits such as 2005’s “The 40-Yea...

Father of accused Highland Park parade shooter turns himself in to begin jail sentence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — The father of the suspect in a deadly Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park turned himself in Wednesday to begin a 60-day jail sentence, after pleading guilty to charges arising from his sponsorship of his son's application for a gun license.Robert Crimo Jr. entered a guilty plea to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct last week in Lake County court, in Waukegan, Illinois. Crimo sponsored his underage son's firearm application three years before the July 2022 attack in Highland Park, even though the teenager had recently threatened violence.Judge George Strickland sentenced Crimo Jr. to 60 days in jail, two years of probation and 100 hours of community service on Nov. 6, but agreed to wait until Wednesday to take him into custody.Illinois offers most misdemeanor offenders the opportunity to reduce their sentence by half for good behavior, meaning Crimo Jr. may only serve 30 days. Although jail time will be brief, ...

3.6 magnitude earthquake reported in northern Illinois

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:26 GMT

STANDARD, Illinois —  An earthquake struck northern Illinois early Wednesday morning, awakening some residents and spurring reports to 911 about homes shaking. The 3.6 magnitude quake was centered about a mile southeast of Standard, Illinois — which is southwest of La Salle, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.The small earthquake was detected about 4:41 a.m. (CST), the federal agency said.USGS research geologist Jessica Jobe said people living as far away as southern Wisconsin, southeastern Iowa and northwest Indiana reported feeling the quake.So far, there are no reports of any damage.