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Spooked by Putin (and Macron), the Council of Europe meets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

As Russia wages war in Ukraine, one aging pan-European institution hopes to reclaim its historic role at the heart of the Continent.Almost 50 heads of government are gathering this week in Iceland for what is only the fourth Council of Europe summit since the the body was created 74 years ago in the ashes of World War II. Focused on human rights, the Council was the original post-war forum for discussion among European leaders. Items on the agenda this week include a tentative first step toward a compensation mechanism for victims of the war in Ukraine.But officials and academics admit that Russian aggression in Europe was not the only reason to arrange the first Council summit since 2005.The arrival of a new kid on the block — Emmanuel Macron’s European Political Community (EPC) — has forced the Strasbourg-based Council to defend its patch. With questions raised about the value of so many pan-European bodies, the Council — which employs 2,200 people and has an annual budget of €479...

Athens slams French newspaper for displaying Greek islands as … Turkish!

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

Greece complained to French newspaper Le Monde after it published a map of Turkey’s election results which showed a number of Greek islands as Turkish territory.The map, which appeared on the English version of Le Monde’s website Monday, showed the Greek islands of Chios, Samos, Ikaria, Kos, Ios, Amorgos and Rhodes as having voted for Turkish opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in Sunday’s election.According to two officials in the Greek foreign ministry, Greece’s ambassador to Paris, Dimitrios Zevelakis, wrote a letter to the newspaper’s publishers, calling on them to remove the map, which noted Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu as its source. Le Monde has since removed the map from its website.Despite being NATO allies, neighboring Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a number of bilateral disputes, including maritime boundaries, Cyprus and overlapping claims to their continental shelves.Even though Aegean tensions briefly calm...

Neighbors recount woman who leapt to safety from roof, escaping Brockton blaze that displaced 8

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

A person was forced to make a desperate leap from a second-floor roof to escape a fast-moving blaze in Brockton late Monday night that left a building seriously damaged and eight people without a home.Crews responding to a reported structure fire at a multi-use building with a convenience store on Warren Avenue around 11 p.m. found heavy smoke and flames coming from the three-story building, according to Brockton fire officials.A neighbor told 7NEWS that a woman who lived on the building’s third floor was able to climb through a window before dropping down from the second-floor roof onto concrete below.“As soon as I’d seen her, she just fell down,” Antonio Santos said Tuesday morning. “She tried to grab some things, just to jump – she was a little scared to jump so she just fell.”Santos said he was able to contact the woman and speak with her while she was at a local hospital. He told reporters that after the fall, she was feeling better as ...

Virginia man charged in baseball bat attack on congressional staff also facing hate crime charge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A man charged with attacking two staffers for Rep. Gerry Connolly with a baseball bat in his district office is also being charged with a hate crime, accused of damaging a car and chasing a woman in a Virginia neighborhood less than an hour earlier.Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax was arraigned Tuesday by video hookup from the Fairfax County jail. Pham refused to appear, so a judge read the four counts against him while he huddled under a blanket in his cell.The charges include aggravated wounding and malicious aggravated wounding for the baseball bat attack on two staffers at Connolly’s district office in Fairfax. They also include a misdemeanor hate crime charge, and a felony count of destroying property. ‘Police say Pham approached a woman parked in her car Monday morning, asked if she was white, and then hit her windshield with a baseball bat. A video recorded on a neighbor’s home camera system shows a man with a bat chasing a woman wh...

Patriots-Titans preseason game date and time announced

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

The Patriots will close their 2023 preseason with road game at Tennessee on Friday, Aug. 25, the team announced Tuesday.Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. in Nashville.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Guregian: Emptying the notebook after a 38-year run at the Herald New England Patriots | Guregian: Patriots schedule is a doozy no matter which way you slice it New England Patriots | Patriots 2023 schedule: Analyzing all 17 games from the Cowboys trip to Aaron Rogders’ Jets New England Patriots | NFL 2023 schedule: Patriots open with Eagles, play Chiefs and Steelers among 4 primetime games New England Patriots | Patriots back James Robinson looking forward to showing his mettle The Patriots and Titans have discussed holding joint practices prior to their shared preseason finale, sources confirmed to the Herald. Those practices would likely take place Monday through Wednesday of that week. The Pats pr...

ChatGPT’s chief testifies before Congress, calls for new agency to regulate artificial intelligence

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

By MATT O’BRIEN (AP Technology Writer)The head of the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT told Congress on Tuesday that government intervention “will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful” AI systems.“As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live. We are too,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday.Altman proposed the formation of a U.S. or global agency that would license the most powerful AI systems and have the authority to “take that license away and ensure compliance with safety standards.”His San Francisco-based startup rocketed to public attention after it released ChatGPT late last year. ChatGPT is a free chatbot tool that answers questions with convincingly human-like responses.What started out as a panic among educators about ChatGPT’s use to cheat on homework assignments has expanded to broader concerns abo...

The worst inflation of all: Record levels of debt

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

High consumer prices are one thing. Inflation has taken its toll on most household finances. But add high interest rates on top of soaring consumer debt, and the financial pressure increases even more.How soon should you take action if you’re struggling to pay your bills on time? Days not weeks.Rising debt and delinquenciesCredit card balances increased $61 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 to $986 billion, surpassing the pre-pandemic high, according to an analysis released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It’s the most significant debt gain in the history of the New York Fed’s data, compiled since 1999.And timely payments are becoming an issue. “The share of current debt becoming delinquent increased again in the fourth quarter for nearly all debt types,” the report said.In particular, the Fed noted that younger borrowers — in their 20s, 30s and 40s — were struggling to keep up with monthly payments:“Some of these borrowers are strugg...

Putin, Zelenskyy agree to meet with ‘African leaders peace mission,’ says South Africa president

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have agreed to separate meetings with a delegation of leaders from six African countries to discuss a possible plan to end the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s president said Tuesday. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he spoke with Putin and Zelenskyy by phone over the weekend and they each agreed to host “an African leaders peace mission” in Moscow and Kyiv, respectively.“Principal to our discussions are efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the devastating conflict in the Ukraine,” Ramaphosa said.The leaders of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda and Egypt would make up the delegation along with Ramaphosa, he said in a statement. Putin and Zelenskyy gave him the go-ahead to “commence the preparations,” the South African leader said.Four of those six African countries — South Africa, Congo, Senegal and Uganda — abstained from a U.N. vote last year on ...

Brazil sends thousands of Venezuelan migrants to country’s rich southern states

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

PACARAIMA, Brazil (AP) — As the sun rose, Miguel Gonzalez, partner Maryelis Rodriguez and their four young children got off a passenger bus after an 18-hour ride south from the eastern Venezuelan community they desperately wanted to leave.The parents, with minds still muzzy from sleep, retrieved two duffel bags and assessed needs before entering the station: Diaper change for the 1-year-old. Restrooms for the 2-, 4- and 6-year-old. Directions to Brazil.“Taxi? Taxi?” hawkish cab drivers asked everyone walking through the Santa Elena de Uairen station, where thousands of people every month walk through Venezuelan territory one last time. Roughly a half hour later, the Gonzalez family, like dozens of others every day, became migrants for the first time when they exited a taxi in Pacaraima, Brazil.More than 7.2 million people have left Venezuela since the country’s political, economic and social crisis began last decade. Most have gone to Spanish-speaking countries of South America — wi...

Council of Europe summit in Iceland seeks to hold Russia to account for waging war in Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:31:03 GMT

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Leaders from across the continent are laser-focused on holding Russia to account for its invasion of Ukraine and were poised to approve a system during their Council of Europe summit that would precisely establish the damages Moscow would have to pay to rebuild the nation. The 46-nation Council of Europe is opening its first summit in 18 years late Tuesday, fully backing its member state Ukraine and condemning Russia, which was expelled from the organization, for inflicting war on its neighbor.While almost all European nations have provided military support or taken in refugees from Ukraine, the Council of Europe, the continent’s preeminent human rights organization, is uniquely placed to coordinate legal and judicial support.“When we think in terms of reconstruction it’s an enormously important judicial element to have this register of damages to give justice to the victims,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. And after Ukrainia...