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Israel-Hamas war crowds crisis-heavy global agenda as Blinken, G7 foreign ministers meet in Japan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Fresh from a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shifted his intense diplomacy on the Israel-Hamas war to Asia on Tuesday, as he and his counterparts from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies began two days of talks in Japan.The devastating monthlong conflict in Gaza and efforts to ease the dire humanitarian impacts of Israel’s response to the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack were set to be a major focus of the meeting. Yet with the Russia-Ukraine war, fears North Korea may be readying a new nuclear test, and concerns about China’s increasing global assertiveness, it is far from the only crisis on the agenda.“Even as we are intensely focused on the crisis in Gaza, we’re also very much engaged and focused on the important work that we’re doing in the Indo-Pacific and in other parts of the world,” Blinken told reporters in Ankara, Turkey, before leaving the Middle East for Asia.In Tokyo, Blinken and foreign minister...

Live updates | Israel open to ‘little pauses’ as it bombards Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza “for an indefinite period” after its war with Hamas and expressed openness to “little pauses” in the current fighting to facilitate the release of hostages.His comments, in an interview that aired late Monday on ABC News, offered the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control over the territory that is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.Netanyahu ruled out any general cease-fire without the release of the more than 240 captives seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 raid into Israel, but he said he was open to “tactical little pauses.” U.S. President Joe Biden had raised the need for humanitarian pauses directly with Netanyahu on a call earlier Monday, but no agreement was reached, the White House said.The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 10,000, including more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in...

Stock market today: World shares are mostly lower after a mixed session on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares mostly fell in Europe and Asia on Tuesday after a mixed close on Wall Street, where wild recent moves calmed a bit at the beginning of a quiet week for data releases. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2% to 15,110.26 and the CAC 40 in Paris also fell 0.2%, to 7,002.53. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.1% to 7,410.08. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3%.Late Monday, office-sharing company WeWork confirmed it is seeking bankruptcy protection. Trading in its shares was halted Monday amid speculation over its restructuring plans. It’s a stunning decline for a one-time Wall Street darling that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world. The company’s shares cost more than $400 two years ago but now cost less than $1.In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.3% to 32,271.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 1.7% to 17,670.16 The Shanghai Composite index slipped less than 0.1% ...

Income inequality across the EU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

In 2022, the median equivalized disposable income in the EU was 18 706 purchasing power standards (PPS) per inhabitant, increasing from 18 011 PPS recorded in 2021. At the national level, the EU countries with the highest median disposable incomes in 2022 were Luxembourg (33,214 PPS), the Netherlands (25,437 PPS), Austria (25,119 PPS), Belgium (24,142 PPS), Denmark (23,244 PPS) and Germany (23,197 PPS). In contrast, Bulgaria (9,671 PPS), Slovakia (9,826 PPS), Romania (10,033 PPS), Hungary (10,217 PPS), and Greece (10,841 PPS) reported the lowest values.The median equivalised disposable income, expressed in the PPS, accounts for income distribution as well as household size and composition. The unit PPS considers the price-level variations, ensuring comparability across countries.More information Statistics Explained article on living conditions in Europe – income distribution and income inequality Thematic section on income and living conditions Da...

'Trial of Iran prison official in Stockholm: Conflict between opposition, regime has non-international character'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

During the appeal trial concerning the life sentence handed down by a lower court to a former Iranian regime prison official, new light was shed on the longstanding internal conflict in Iran. Evidence presented during the proceedings revealed that there has been an ongoing struggle between the resistance and the ruling theocracy since 1981, writes Shahin Gobadi.Kenneth Lewis, the attorney representing several plaintiffs in the appeal trial of Hamid Noury, a former prison official charged with participating in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988, asserted that the confrontation between the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Iranian regime does not constitute an international armed conflict. Noury, he argued, should be tried for crimes committed during a non-international armed conflict. Lewis highlighted that this internal strife between the MEK and the Iranian authorities began on June 20, 1981, with the quelling of peaceful prote...

Dear Abby: I like to video people who are behaving badly

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I have some advice for your readers who write regarding problems with how others behave badly or are verbally abusive or inappropriate toward them. Hopefully, it will help someone.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: The rest of the book club is appalled by the woman I invited Advice | Dear Abby: My sister-in-law always has ‘other plans.’ Should I stop asking? Advice | Dear Abby: I haven’t told my wife what I know. Should I stick around? Advice | Dear Abby: I just wanted to sit in their house for a few hours, and they wouldn’t let me in Advice | Dear Abby: I just learned my brother knew a secret that would have changed my life I suggest recording video of the offending individual while it’s happening, and then showing them the video later when they are calm/sober/receptive. If the behavior is drug- or alcohol-driven, this can show the person they’re not fun a...

Sale closed in Dublin: $2.5 million for a five-bedroom home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

4619 Westwood Court – Google Street ViewThe spacious property located in the 4600 block of Westwood Court in Dublin was sold on Sept. 29, 2023 for $2,521,000, or $665 per square foot. The house, built in 1999, has an interior space of 3,790 square feet. This single-story house boasts a generous living space with five bedrooms and four bathrooms. In addition, the home includes a three-car garage.These nearby houses have also recently changed hands:On Woodrose Circle, Dublin, in November 2022, a 3,678-square-foot home was sold for $2,275,000, a price per square foot of $619. The home has 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.In March 2023, a 4,002-square-foot home on Woodrose Circle in Dublin sold for $2,375,000, a price per square foot of $593. The home has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.A 2,460-square-foot home on the 5300 block of Aspen Street in Dublin sold in June 2023, for $2,035,000, a price per square foot of $827. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

Japan and UK ministers discuss deeper security ties on the sidelines of G7 meeting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese and British foreign and defense ministers met Tuesday to discuss deeper military cooperation under a new security pact that allows their militaries to enter each other’s territory for joint exercises.Japan and Britain have expanded their cooperation in recent years as concern has grown over China’s increasing influence. Japan, whose only treaty ally is the United States, has signed Reciprocal Access Agreements with Australia and the U.K., making them semi-allies.The talks in Tokyo among Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Defense Secretary Grant Shapps are the first since the RAA took effect in mid-October. They met on the sidelines of a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Tuesday and Wednesday that is expected to focus on the Israel-Hamas war, the Russia-Ukraine war and tension in the Indo-Pacific region. The four ministers’...

Russian forces kill Georgian citizen near breakaway region’s border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

Russian border guards shot and killed a Georgian national on Monday evening near the border with the Moscow-backed breakaway South Ossetia region, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced Monday evening. “The incident once again confirms the difficult security environment on the ground and speaks of the severe consequences of the occupation,” Garibashvili said in a statement.This is the first deadly incident in the vicinity of the South Ossetia border since a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008.After the war, Russia unilaterally recognized South Ossetia — where Russian forces have been deployed since the 1990s — and another region, Abkhazia, and has since threatened to annex them.The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell on Tuesday condemned the shooting.“The EU strongly condemns the killing of a Georgian citizen and the detention of another one by the Russian border guards in Kirbali,” Borrell wrote on X, formerly Twitter, a...

Place beyond words: Herald views footage of merciless Oct. 7 Hamas killings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:48:11 GMT

“Why am I still alive?”A young boy helplessly cried that out after his father had just been killed in a kibbutz by marauding Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.Death, at that point, was the only escape.It’s one of a series of heart-wrenching clips compiled by the Israel Defense Forces viewed by the Herald Monday in a downtown Boston office along with other journalists. In about 43 minutes of footage, you see “138 murders,” said Ambassador Meron Reuben, consulate general of Israel to New England.It’s not the social media snippets making the rounds. It’s graphic, unsettling, and turn-away carnage that shines a light on just how unforgiving the terrorists were. Many tried to hide, but they died. The Hamas killers were armed with what appeared to be newer assault rifles and plenty of hand grenades.Yes, babies were killed and burned. Women were tortured. A group of about a dozen teenage girls were cornered. A man had his head chopped off by a Hamas terro...