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Italy voices anger at ECB interest rate hikes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has criticised the European Central Bank over repeatedly hiking interest rates to combat inflation, saying the “cure” may be worse than “the disease.”The ECB raised its interest rates to their highest level in more than 20 years this month, taking the benchmark rate in the euro area to 3.5 percent, the highest since May 2001, and signaled another hike to come next month.Addressing the Rome Parliament on Wednesday, Meloni called inflation “a hateful hidden tax” and said it was “right to fight it decisively, but the simplistic recipe for rate increases undertaken by the ECB does not appear to be the most correct path … One cannot fail to consider the risk that the constant increase in interest rates is a more harmful cure than the disease.”Members of Meloni’s government have reacted critically after ECB president Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday that rates were likely to keep going up. Speakin...

EU reaches deal on joint weapons purchases

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

Top European Union institutions have rubber-stamped an unprecedented scheme to make it easier for EU countries to jointly buy weapons. The deal to procure military materiel will boost Europe’s defense industry, and “EU member states will be able to more effectively replenish their stocks depleted by donations to Ukraine,” said Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson after the deal between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU was announced Tuesday evening. In the past year and a half, European countries have regularly provided weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s all-out assault. However, the pace of production is not fast enough to replenish Europe’s stocks, as defense companies have complained they can’t ramp up without contracts. The EU legislation — known in full as the regulation on establishing the instrument for the reinforcement of the European defence industry through common procurement (EDIRPA) — has a budget of €300 m...

Fatal clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh as Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks begin in DC

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

YEREVAN — Four Armenian servicemen were killed after Azerbaijan carried out strikes along the tense contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh in the early hours of Wednesday morning, officials in the breakaway region have said.In a statement, the Armenian-backed government of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said its troops came under heavy artillery fire and drone attacks overnight, but that the situation has since stabilized.The day prior, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry alleged one of its troops had been shot in the isolated mountain territory. Karabakh Armenian officials deny the claims, saying Baku created the pretext “for a new provocation.”The clashes come as high-stakes peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan began in Washington. Foreign ministers from both sides met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday ahead of trilateral negotiations slated to continue until Thursday.“The U.S. is encouraged by recent efforts of Armenia and Azerba...

Lawyer accused of series of sex assaults indicted in more attacks in the North End

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

A New Jersey man charged earlier this month in a series of sexual assaults in Charlestown in the 2000s was indicted Tuesday on new charges connected to a spate of rapes and sexual attacks in the North End in 2007 and 2008, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.Matthew Nilo, 35, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on seven charges—one count of rape, one count of aggravated rape, three counts of assault with intent to rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery. The alleged attacks occurred between January 2007 and July 2008Nilo will be formally charged on the new counts at his next court appearance July 13. Nilo was released June 15 after posting $500,000 bail.The charges stem from five attacks on four women in the North End. One of the victims was attacked twice, 11 days apart. The attacks occurred in January 2007, July 2007, January 2008 and July 2008.The incidents followed a similar pattern. The victims were attacked while they were walking alone, in the...

State, city leaders to address concerns regarding upcoming Sumner Tunnel closure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

State and city leaders are set to address concerns about a nearly two-month closure of the Sumner Tunnel that is slated to begin next month. The main artery connecting East Boston to the rest of Boston is slated to shut down from July 5 to Aug. 31 to make way for needed repairs. Weekend closures already in place on most weekends for the past year have given drivers a preview of what to expect. State officials have announced mitigation measures ahead of the upcoming Sumner Tunnel closure, including plans to stage extra ambulances in East Boston. Other measures include fare-free Blue Line service, reduced fare on the Commuter Rail and either free or reduced-fare harbor ferry rides.Together, MassDOT hopes the measures will alleviate some of the disruption as crews repair the nearly 90-year-old Sumner Tunnel. See more information on planned mitigation efforts during the upcoming tunnel closure here.Another two-month closure is scheduled for next s...

9 killed, including 3 children, as Russian missile slams into pizza restaurant in east Ukraine city

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack that hit a crowded pizza restaurant in an eastern Ukrainian city killed at least nine people, including three children, authorities said Wednesday, as rescue workers continued searching in the destroyed building’s rubble.The Tuesday evening attack on Kramatorsk wounded another 56 people, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said, in the latest bombardment, a tactic Russia has used heavily in the 16-month-old war.Two sisters, both age 14, died as result of the attack, the educational department of the Kramatorsk city council said. “Russian missiles stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels,” it said in a Telegram post.The other dead child was 17, according to Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin. The attack, using what officials said were S-300 missiles, also damaged 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building and a recreational building, the regional go...

Exonerated member of ‘Central Park Five’ takes lead in New York City Council primary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Yusef Salaam, who as a child was part of a group of teenagers wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape of a woman jogging in Central Park, took a commanding lead Tuesday in a Democratic primary for a City Council seat in New York.Salaam faces two veteran politicians, New York Assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, in the race for a seat representing part of Harlem. The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the race in May but remained on the ballot.The contest was taking place more than two decades after Salaam and four other men — known as the “Central Park Five” — were exonerated by DNA evidence in one of the city’s most notorious and racially fraught crimes.The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the race and the election’s outcome might not be certain for days because of New York’s ranked choice voting rules. That system kicks in if no candidate claims more than 50% of the total vote. It was ...

Pedestrian struck and killed in crash on Hwy. 400 in Barrie

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

A pedestrian is dead after being struck by a vehicle on Highway 400 in Barrie.Provincial police responded to a crash in the southbound lanes of the highway near Dunlop Street around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.One person was pronounced dead at the scene.It’s unclear how the pedestrian ended up on the highway or what led to the crash.All southbound lanes were shut down for several hours between Dunlop and Essa Road for the investigation. The roads reopened just before 6 a.m.OPP are asking anyone who may have dash cam footage of the crash to contact them.

Cyprus battles disease-carrying mosquitoes by breeding them with irradiated, sterilized ones

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus is battling an influx of disease-carrying mosquitoes by bringing in hundreds of thousands of the insects after being sterilized through radiation.The battle is primarily focused on eradicating the Aedes aegypti variety of mosquito that has been found in large numbers in the island nation’s coastal town of Larnaca.Cyprus’ Environmental Health Services head Herodotos Herodotou told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Aedes aegypti has been specifically targeted to prevent its potential migration to continental Europe.The effort is also targeting the Aedes albopictus mosquito on the island, which is more common in Europe.Both varieties can transmit to humans dangerous diseases such as dengue, Zika and yellow fever, as well as West Nile virus.Herodotou said that his service collects and dispatches both varieties of mosquitos — both eggs and grown insects — to laboratories in Italy and Austria where they’re bred and separated into male and female.The ...

The hazy future for caregiver payments expanded during the pandemic worries families

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:58:00 GMT

Nathan Hill started receiving $12.75 an hour from a state Medicaid program to help care for his severely disabled son during the pandemic, money he said allowed his family to stop using food stamps.The program was designed to provide a continuation of care and ease a home health worker shortage that grew worse after COVID-19 hit.But now, with the COVID-19 public health emergency over, he worries that the extra income will disappear. Some states have already stopped payments while others have yet to make them permanent. “The success of this during the pandemic was tremendous … for the first time we were able to pay our own way,” said the Meridian, Idaho, resident. “We’re not relying on charities to help us pay our rent and utilities.”A total of 39 states, with the help of the federal government, either started paying family caregivers or expanded the population eligible for payment during the pandemic, according to a survey last summer by KFF, a non-profit that studies health care is...