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Stock market today: Asian shares lower, Tokyo closed, as focus turns to Federal Reserve meeting

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

Shares fell Monday in Asia, with Hong Kong’s benchmark pulled lower by property stocks following reports that police had detained staff at the wealth management business of troubled real estate developer China Evergrande.U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices advanced.Tokyo’s markets were closed for a national holiday. On Friday, China’s national financial regulator announced it had approved the takeover of the group’s life insurance arm by a new state-owned entity. On Saturday, police in the southern city of Shenzhen, where Evergrande is based, announced the arrests of some staff of its wealth management business. Defaults on debts in the property sector since 2021 have resulted in half-finished apartment buildings, disgruntled homebuyers and fears the industry’s troubles might further slow the world’s second-largest economy and shake global financial markets. Evergrande’s Hong Kong traded shares were up 1.6% after plunging early in the session. Country Garden, ...

Turkey’s President Erdogan and Elon Musk discuss establishing a Tesla car factory in Turkey

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Elon Musk, the head of electric carmaker Tesla, to establish a factory in Turkey during a meeting in New York, Erdogan’s office said Monday.Erdogan, who is in the U.S. to attend the U.N. General Assembly, also discussed potential cooperation between Musk’s space exploration firm SpaceX and Turkey’s space program, the Turkish president’s office said.The statement said Erdogan told Musk that Turkey would welcome cooperation on artificial intelligence and Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service. Musk said SpaceX wanted to secure the necessary license to offer Starlink in Turkey.Images of the meeting showed Musk holding one of his sons as he talked to Erdogan.Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir, who attended the meeting, said Musk described Turkey as “among the most important candidates for Tesla investment.”He added that Musk and Erdogan also discussed Turkey’s armed aerial drone progra...

Ukraine and its allies battle Russian bid to have genocide case tossed out of the UN’s top court

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine’s legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion resumes Monday at the United Nations’ highest court, as Russia seeks to have the case tossed out.Hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the Word Court, will see Ukraine supported by a record 32 other nations in a major show of support.Kyiv launched the case shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleging that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine. It wants the court to order Russia to halt its invasion and pay reparations.Filing its case last year, Ukraine said that “Russia has turned the Genocide Convention on its head — making a false claim of genocide as a basis for actions on its part that constitute grave violations of the human rights of millions of people across Ukraine....

Parliament strengthens rules on integrity, transparency and accountability 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

Parliament has revised its internal rules in response to allegations of corruption, based on the President’s 14-point reform plan, Plenary session, AFCO.The changes to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure were adopted in plenary today with 505 votes in favour, 93 against, and 52 abstentions.MEPs adopted a reinforced ban on all MEP activities that would constitute lobbying, the obligation for MEPs to submit declarations of input on ideas or suggestions received from external actors to be annexed to all reports and opinions, and harsher penalties for breaches of the code of conduct. Other changes introduced include:broader rules on the publication of meetings so they apply to all MEPs (not just those who hold official positions) and cover meetings with third country representatives;stronger rules on ‘revolving doors’, introducing a ban on MEPs from engaging with former MEPs who have left Parliament in the previous six months - complementary to the ban on such activities for former MEPs for...

Facing mounting tensions, EU must find quick answers to divisive agri-food issues

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

On 5 September, Spanish farmers from the southern Andalusian region convened for a massive protest in Córdoba to express their frustration with the EU’s stringent climate policies. Already grappling with two punishing years soaring inflation, production costs and climate change-induced losses, Iberian farmers have recently decried Brussels’ green agriculture approach as “totally out of touch” with on-the-ground realities.Coinciding with a meeting of the bloc’s agriculture ministers in the same city, their demonstration is unlikely to fall on deaf ears. Moreover, this Andalusian uprising is the latest in a series of protests that have swept across the bloc in recent months, with politically-consequential farmers in the Netherlands, Poland, and the wider CEE region rising up against EU and domestic policy failures.Faced with tough year-end decisions on several polarising agricultural fronts, Brussels must find rapid compromises that work for both its farmers and environment while cult...

Vigil held for L.A. Sheriff's Deputy killed in ambush-style shooting

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

Hundreds of people gathered at Los Angeles County’s Palmdale Sheriff Station Sunday night for a vigil to honor the life of 30-year-old Deputy Ryan “Clink” Clinkunbroomer, killed in an ambush-style shooting over the weekend in the Antelope Valley.  Clinkunbroomer, 30, an eight-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was found unconscious in his police cruiser and suffering from gunshot wounds by a citizen around 6 p.m. near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q in Palmdale. He was rushed to the Antelope Valley Medical Center where he later died as a result of his injuries.  The shooting was an ambush involving a suspect or suspects in a vehicle driving past Deputy Clinkunbroomer when they fired at him. He was on duty and sitting in his squad car when the shooting took place. From songs and prayers to a flyover above the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station, which was lit up in blue, mourners came out to add to a growing memorial to Deputy Clinkunbroomer and to find s...

Doug Lamborn on ‘50-50 proposition’ to pass funding bill

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn said it's "a 50-50 proposition" whether Congress will pass a funding measure by the end of the month to avoid a government shutdown.Lamborn joined "Colorado Point of View" this week, where he talked about the threatened government shutdown and the House Freedom Caucus. Lamborn: House Freedom Caucus ‘not being very reasonable’ Also this week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy opened an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet responded to a new report showing a rise in child poverty.Watch the full episode of “Colorado Point of View” in the video player above. “Colorado Point of View” airs every weekend on Colorado’s Very Own Channel 2.

Ukraine liberates another village near devastated Bakhmut

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

KYIV — Ukraine said its forces have recaptured Klishchiivka, a village in Donetsk some nine kilometers south of Bakhmut. “Klishchiivka was cleared of Russians and liberated,” Ukraine’s Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Sirskiy said in a statement early Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian soldiers for their efforts in his daily address on Sunday evening, saying: “I would like to especially mention the warriors who are gradually regaining Ukraine’s territory, especially in the Bakhmut area … well done!”On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers posted a video on social media showing troops next to ruins in Klishchiivka with the Ukrainian flag and their brigade flags. The fighters warned that Russian forces are not planning to give up strategically important locations around Bakhmut and are attacking their positions with all the weapons they have. Hanna Maliar, deputy defense minister of Ukraine, confirmed that the Kremlin’s forces are trying to ...

Pennsylvania police search for 9 juveniles who escaped from detention facility during a riot

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

MORGANTOWN, Pa (AP) — Authorities in Pennsylvania launched a search Sunday night for nine people who escaped from a juvenile detention facility following a riot.The Reading division of the Pennsylvania State Police and other agencies were searching for nine juveniles who escaped from Abraxas Academy around 8 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David Beohm said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.State and local police were called to take control of the juvenile center in Morgantown, about 49 miles (78.8 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, after the riot began inside the facility, the Caernarvon Township Police Department said in a statement on its website.The juveniles were wearing white or grey shirts,” the department said, advising anyone encountering them to immediately call 911.Abraxas Academy is a secure residential treatment program providing “specialized care for delinquent male youth between the ages of 14 to 18 in 9th grade or above,” according to ...

$6 billion in Iranian assets once frozen in South Korea now in Qatar, key for prisoner swap with US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:23 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Some $6 billion of Iranian assets once frozen in South Korea is in Qatar, a key element for a planned prisoner swap between Tehran and the United States, an Iranian official said Monday. Nasser Kanaani made the comment during a news conference aired on state television, but the feed cut immediately after his remarks without explanation. “The issue of swap of prisoners will be done on this day and five prisoners, citizens of the Islamic Republic, will be released from the prisons in the U.S.,” Kanaani said. “Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the U.S. side reciprocally, based on their will. We expect these two issues fully take place based on agreement.”He said two of the Iranian prisoners will stay in the U.S.Iranian news agencies immediately afterward reported, quoting Kanaani, that the prisoner swap would be done on Monday. There was no other information immediately released by the agencies and U.S. officials did not ackno...