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Dutch MEPs back Frans Timmermans for return to national politics

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

BRUSSELS — The prospect of EU Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans quitting Brussels and returning to Dutch politics increased Monday, when members of his Labor Party voted to fight an upcoming election in tandem with the Dutch Greens.The two parties announced the decision after a vote by members in which 87.9 percent of Labor Party voters and 91.8 percent of Green-Left voters backed a joint campaign.With broad convergence on policy, the next big question facing the new alignment is who they will pick to lead their list — and that ripple effect could reach Brussels. Timmermans, who has been leading work on the European Green Deal since 2019, received endorsements at home and in Brussels, while Dutch media speculates about his return. “I support the candidacy of Frans Timmermans if he puts himself forward,” said senior Dutch Labor Party MEP Mohammed Chahim who is a vice-chair of the Socialists grouping in the European Parliament.Chahim, who spearheaded the ...

Biden and Vatican emissary to meet on Russia’s deportations of Ukrainian children

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

Pope Francis has dispatched a high-level emissary to speak directly with President Joe Biden about the thousands of Ukrainian children Russia has forcibly displaced, a person familiar with the meeting said.The Vatican announced Monday that Cardinal Matteo Zuppi is spending three days in the American capital, following his recent visits to Kyiv and Moscow. He is expected to meet with Biden at the White House on Tuesday, said the person, who was granted anonymity to disclose a sensitive, private meeting.The Holy See Press Office said the cardinal’s mission is to “promote peace in Ukraine.” More specifically, per the person, Zuppi wants to discuss the nearly 20,000 kids Ukraine claims were deported or forcibly displaced by Russia since the invasion began.The U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Joe Donnelly, is also in D.C. and will be present at some of the cardinal’s meetings in Washington.The White House and the Vatican embassy in the U.S. didn’t respond to requests f...

51-year-old woman killed in Lowell after alleged assault by son

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

A 23-year-old man is facing multiple assault charges after authorities found the suspect’s mother dead inside a condominium in Lowell.In a joint-statement, both the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and Lowell Police Department said Elena Vainer, 51, of Reading, was found dead inside a Middlesex Street condo after officers were contacted early Monday morning.Authorities said they responded to the condo after receiving a 911 call reporting that a woman had been beaten and was “barely breathing.” Police then arrived to find Vainer deceased and with “obvious bruising to her face and other apparent trauma.”“The preliminary investigation suggests that the victim had been in Lowell visiting her son Michael Belous, 23, at his Middlesex Street condominium over the weekend,” the statement read.Officials said that, at some point during the visit, “a physical altercation occurred that allegedly resulted in the victim being severely beate...

Newton man arraigned on murder charges after fatal beating left his wife dead and son calling for help

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

A man from Newton accused of fatally assaulting his wife, leading to his children calling 911 for help, faced a judge on Monday.Richard Hanson, 64, appeared in court after his arrest on Saturday, July 15, when police responded to Brookline Street to find Nancy Hanson, 54, suffering from blunt force trauma. Hanson himself was found covered in blood in the driveway at the time, according to police.The suspect was ordered held without bail following Monday’s proceedings, after the prosecution detailed how Hanson allegedly beat his wife with a baseball bat while their three sons were in the home.The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said days before her death, Nancy Hanson had filed for a restraining order against her husband on Thursday, July 13, but police had not yet been able to serve the order before the attack.In court on Monday, the prosecution detailed how during the attack, Newton police received two 911 calls – one from a friend who said Nancy had called her whe...

5 financial tips for grandparents using a 529 plan to save for college

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

Bob Haegele | (TNS) BankrateA 529 plan is a savings account that can help cover qualifying education expenses. These plans have many advantages, such as portability and favorable tax treatment. A 529 plan allows family members such as parents and grandparents to help contribute to a child’s education.The average annual in-state tuition cost at a four-year college is $9,678, according to the Education Data Initiative, while out-of-state tuition averages $27,091. Additional costs for things such as books, supplies and food average about $16,000-17,000 per year. With college costs high and only increasing, a 529 plan is more essential than ever.Here’s how grandparents can use a 529 plan to help grandchildren with education expenses.Key student debt statistics: What is a 529 plan and how does it work?A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged account that helps cover the cost of college and other education expenses. The account allows contributors to deposit after-tax money, put it in potentially h...

Two people and a dog were rescued after Gloucester boat explosion

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

A boat explosion in Gloucester sent two people to the hospital on Monday after first responders pulled them from the water, according to officials.A dog was also rescued following the boat explosion in Gloucester Harbor, the city’s police chief reported.Gloucester firefighters just before 9 a.m. responded to reports of a boat on fire near the Blynman Bridge, with people in the water. Upon arrival, crews saw that a boat was engulfed in flames.Rescuers were able to pull the two people from the water, and they were transported to area hospitals for what are believed to be non-life threatening injuries.Gloucester Police Boat then began a direct attack on the flames. The Gloucester Harbormaster towed the vessel back to shore, where Gloucester Fire extinguished the fire.The U.S. Coast Guard provided assistance in managing the waterway while these efforts were ongoing.The Blynman Bridge was closed during the response. It has since reopened.The cause of the fire remains under investig...

Affirmative action ruling could impact minority scholarships

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to block affirmative action — preventing colleges from using race as one of many factors when evaluating applicants for admission — may also block scholarships and grants intended for minority students, even though the ruling did not extend to financial aid.Though some institutional scholarships that take race into account may soon disappear, minority students with financial need still have access to a variety of funding sources for their education — including grants, external scholarships, aid related to family income and federal loans.Fewer minority scholarships could decrease college enrollmentA few states have already begun threatening scholarships meant for students of color in the wake of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling. On June 29 — the day of the Supreme Court decision — Missouri’s Republican attorney general sent a letter to state universities directing them to end race-based scholarships. The Republican speaker of Wisconsin...

Key Russian bridge to Crimea is struck again as Putin vows response to attack that killed 2

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia — An attack before dawn Monday damaged a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, forcing the span’s temporary closure for a second time in less than a year. Two people were killed and their daughter was injured. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered increased security at the 19-kilometer (12-mile) Kerch Bridge, repeating a call he made in October 2022 when the span was severely damaged by an explosion that Moscow also blamed on Kyiv.He also promised “there will be a response from Russia, of course.”“What happened is another terrorist act of the Kyiv regime,” Putin said at a televised meeting with officials. “It is a crime that is pointless from the military point of view, it bears no significance because the Crimean bridge hasn’t been used for military means in a long time, and it is brutal, because blameless civilians were injured and killed.”Vehicle traffic on the bridge came to...

From Brazil’s Amazon to bossa nova and beyond, prolific pianist João Donato dies at 88

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian composer and pianist João Donato, who helped lay the groundwork for bossa nova but throughout his career defied confinement to any single genre, died Monday. He was 88.His death was announced on his verified Instagram account. Local media reported that he had been hospitalized and intubated with pneumonia.Donato was prolific and inventive, collaborating with top artists at home and abroad, including Chet Baker, João Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, Tito Puente, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and countless others.“Today we lost one of our greatest and most creative composers,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on Twitter. “João Donato saw music in everything. He innovated, he passed through samba, bossa nova, jazz, forro and in the mixture of rhythm built something unique. He kept creating and innovating until the end.”Donato was born in the Amazonian state of Acre on Brazil’s western border, far from the cultural hubs of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paul...

Ontario man dead, woman critical after gondola crash at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:21 GMT

MONT-TREMBLANT, Que. — The man killed and the woman seriously injured over the weekend at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant resort were from Ontario, police said Monday.The two were ejected from a gondola climbing Mont-Tremblant when their cable car struck a drilling machine around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Quebec provincial police Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said. A man in his 50s was declared dead in hospital on Sunday and a woman in her 50s was in critical condition in a Montreal hospital Monday. Bilodeau said it’s still unclear why a drilling machine was operating near a moving gondola.“There was a collision between this drill and one of the gondolas in which these two Ontarians in their 50s were occupants,” Bilodeau said. “Investigators will try to determine the circumstances surrounding this event.” Representatives from the Mont Tremblant resort, located 105 kilometres northwest of Montreal, and police said the drill belonged to a third party and the incide...