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EU Parliament ethics fight muddies Qatargate reforms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

STRASBOURG — The body positivity movement has definitely not reached the European Parliament — relating to the ethics body, that is.When it comes to the European Commission’s proposal for an ethics body to boost integrity standards and enforcement across all EU institutions, the European Parliament can’t figure out where it stands. Left-leaning members of European Parliament want the body to be stronger. Conservatives want to rename it — but otherwise stick with the EU executive’s idea. And centrists are so disappointed they don’t even want to work on it.These persistent divisions have now crashed into a Parliament vote on Wednesday, intended ostensibly to strengthen its hand in talks with other EU institutions about the ethics panel. Instead, disunity and partisanship are expected, marring the EU’s broader reform ambitions after the Qatargate cash-for-influence scandal shocked Brussels.The catch: Both sides of the left-right divide are trying to claim cr...

Bank of England finds UK lenders strong enough to withstand worse economic conditions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

LONDON — The Bank of England Wednesday found U.K. banks can withstand a dire economic scenario of much higher interest rates, persistent inflation and recessions in both Britain and around the world as part of its stress-testing regime for the financial sector.The BoE said it “continues to judge that the U.K. banking system is resilient, and has the capacity to support households and businesses through a period of higher interest rates, even if economic and financial conditions were to be substantially worse than expected.”All banks remained above key capital thresholds and no bank will have to strengthen its capital position as a result of the test.The findings are the first public health check of British lenders since turmoil ripped the global banking system in March, after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S. highlighted potential losses lurking on banks’ books from rising rates. The BoE’s hypothetical scenario tested the banks against a 5 perce...

Driver freed from crumpled vehicle after crash in Dorchester

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

A driver was extricated from a severely damaged vehicle in Dorchester overnight after a crash on Morrisey Boulevard in Dorchester.Emergency crews used hydraulic cutting tools to free the driver, who was taken to a hospital with undisclosed injuries.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Police investigating violent crash on Route 1 in Chelsea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

Police are investigation a violent crash in Chelsea overnight that led to the temporary closure of part of the southbound side of Route 1.Officers responding to a reported crash before the East Boston exit could be seen assisting with the removal of a damaged white van.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Pence would ban abortions when pregnancies aren’t viable. His GOP rivals won’t say if they agree

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In a Republican presidential field full of opponents to abortion rights, Mike Pence stands out in his embrace of the cause.The former vice president, who is seeking the White House in 2024, is the only major candidate who supports a federal ban on abortion at six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant. He has advocated pulling from the market a widely used abortion pill that has a better safety record than penicillin and Viagra. And he’s implored his Republican rivals to back a 15-week federal ban as a minimum national standard, which several have not done.In a recent interview, Pence went even further, saying abortion should be banned when a pregnancy isn’t viable. Such a standard would force women to carry pregnancies to term even when doctors have determined there is no chance a baby will survive outside the womb.“I’m pro-life. I don’t apologize for it,” Pence said in the interview. “I just have heard so many stories over the years of courageou...

Iowa Republicans pass bill banning most abortions after about 6 weeks, governor to sign on Friday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature passed a bill banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy during a marathon special session Tuesday that continued late into the night. Gov. Kim Reynolds immediately said in a statement she would sign the bill on Friday.The bill passed with exclusively Republican support in a rare, one-day legislative burst lasting more than 14 hours over the vocal — and sometimes tense — objections from Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocates protesting at the Capitol. Just after 11 p.m., lingering protesters in the gallery booed and yelled “shame” to state senators in the minutes after the bill was approved.Reynolds ordered the rare session after the state Supreme Court declined in June to reinstate a practically identical law that she signed in 2018.“The Iowa Supreme Court questioned whether this legislature would pass the same law they did in 2018, and today they have a clear answer,” Reynolds said in a statement...

Milan Kundera, Czech writer and former dissident, dies in Paris aged 94

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Milan Kundera, whose dissident writings in communist Czechoslovakia transformed him into an exiled satirist of totalitarianism, has died in Paris at the age of 94, Czech media said Wednesday. Kundera’s renowned novel, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,’’ opens wrenchingly with Soviet tanks rolling through Prague, the Czech capital that was the author’s home until he moved to France in 1975. Weaving together themes of love and exile, politics and the deeply personal, Kundera’s novel won critical acclaim, earning him a wide readership among Westerners who embraced both his anti-Soviet subversion and the eroticism threaded through many of his works.“If someone had told me as a boy: One day you will see your nation vanish from the world, I would have considered it nonsense, something I couldn’t possibly imagine. A man knows he is mortal, but he takes it for granted that his nation possesses a kind of eternal life,” he told the author Philip Roth in a New York Times i...

Militants attack a security post in southwest Pakistan and trigger a clash that leaves 8 dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Five militants attacked a security post in southwest Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday morning, triggering an intense shootout that left four soldiers, three attackers and a female passerby dead, officials said.The newly-formed militant group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, not providing further details.Hours after the attack, Pakistan’s military said in a statement that “a group of terrorists launched a dastardly attack” in the garrison district of Zhob in the southwestern Baluchistan province. The “initial attempt of terrorists to sneak into the facility was checked by soldiers on duty,” it read. The shootout left three militants and four soldiers dead while five troopers were critically wounded.The statement said security forces are tracking the two other militants who escaped.Earlier, a senior government official, Azam Kakar, said the militants were armed with assault rifles and apparently wanted...

Ripples of Fukushima: Hong Kong to ban Japanese products from areas that discharge radioactive water

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong would immediately ban the import of aquatic products from Fukushima and other Japanese prefectures if Tokyo discharges treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a top official in the city said Wednesday. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said although the wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant would be treated before discharging into the Pacific Ocean, any errors in the process would significantly affect ecology and food safety. The concern stems from Japan’s U.N.-endorsed, but controversial, plan to gradually release the treated water. “Our assessment shows prefectures near Fukushima have higher risks, so we are now taking a responsible way for our residents,” he told reporters at a briefing. The 10 affected territories are Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, he added. A massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s cool...

British Open raises purse to $16.5 million with the winner to get $3 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:01 GMT

HOYLAKE, England (AP) — The British Open is raising its purse to $16.5 million, with the winner at Royal Liverpool next week getting $3 million.The total prize fund was $14 million a year ago. Cameron Smith, who won at St. Andrews, earned $2.5 million.Prize money increased this year at all the majors, with the U.S. Open going up to $20 million, most among the four Grand Slam events. Wyndham Clark received $3.6 million.The Masters increased its purse to $18 million ($3.24 million to Jon Rahm) while the PGA Championship went up to $17.5 million (Brooks Koepka received $3.15 million).“Our aim is to ensure The Open remains at the pinnacle of world golf and we have almost doubled the prize fund since 2016,” said Martin Slumbers, CEO of the R&A.Slumbers noted the “substantial increases” in prize funds across golf, with the PGA Tour establishing $20 million purses for its elevated events and $25 million for The Players Championship. Saudi-funded LIV Golf offered $25 million purses — $2...