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Germany U-turns on commitment to meet NATO spending target annually

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

BERLIN — So much for Olaf Scholz’s Zeitenwende. The German government on Wednesday stepped back at the last minute from making a legal commitment to meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense on an annual basis, according to Reuters and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. A government official told the news agency that a clause pledging to meet the target was deleted at short notice from Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s draft of a new budget financing law, just before the Cabinet passed it to the parliament.Instead, the government pledges to meet the 2 percent target on average over a five-year period, as already set out in the recently published National Security Strategy. Annalena Baerbock’s Foreign Office had opposed setting the 2 percent target in law, as desired by the Defense Ministry, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.A spokesperson for the government declined to comment to Reuters on the details of the bill.Following...

Mother from Lynn drowns trying to save son at NH waterfall

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

A mother from Lynn drowned Tuesday afternoon after jumping into a river near a popular New Hampshire waterfall to help rescue her 10-year-old son, officials said. New Hampshire state police in a statement said authorities first responded after receiving a report of a person trapped at Franconia Falls in the White Mountain National Forest around 4 p.m. Citing an initial investigation, state police said a family from Lynn and one friend from Salem, Mass. hiked to the waterfall on the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River. While at the falls, police said the family’s 10-year-old son fell into the water, prompting other family members to jump in.The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Law Enforcement Division in a separate statement said the mother “jumped into the river to help her child and began to immediately have trouble.”“Two other children jumped into the river to help their brother and mother,” the Fish and Game Department said. “They were able to get their brother ...

Items seized in a police raid at the Marion County Record newspaper in Kansas will be returned, officials say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

(CNN) — After days of national controversy over the raid of a small town’s newspaper office and the publisher’s home, the items seized will be returned, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday.An attorney for the Marion County Record, Bernie Rhodes, told CNN the local prosecutor has agreed to withdraw a search warrant executed on the newspaper Friday and will return all seized items, answering demands of press freedom advocates who sharply condemned the police action.The paper’s co-owner and publisher, Eric Meyer, has said he believes Friday’s raid in Marion – about 60 miles north of Wichita – was prompted by a story published Wednesday about a local business owner. But authorities said they were investigating what they called “identity theft” in a search warrant.Computers, cell phones and other materials were seized during the raid at the Marion County Record, Meyer confirmed to CNN.Marion County prosecutor Joel Ensey released a statement explaining wh...

Sports betting cooling down amid slow summer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

Less money is being wagered on sports each month in Massachusetts as the now-legal activity’s newness expires and the sports calendar has thinned out, but nearly $300 million wagered in July made operators more than $29.4 million in revenue and will yield $5.8 million for the state. The Gaming Commission said Tuesday that there was $294.9 million wagered on approved events that took place in July, down from $332 million on June events. The monthly handle in Massachusetts has fallen each month since online betting launched in March. The first month saw $568.2 million wagered, followed by $559.26 million in April and $454.9 million in May. As a result, the state’s take is also down. The high mark for sports betting tax revenue was set at $12.12 million in May. The latest figure as reported by the Gaming Commission is not a reflection of all the bets placed in July, but rather is the “total amount wagered on approved sporting events that occurred in the month of the r...

Federal Reserve minutes: Too-high inflation, still a threat, could require more rate hikes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER (AP Economics Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Federal Reserve officials last month still regarded high inflation as an ongoing threat that could require further interest rate increases, according to the minutes of their July 25-26 meeting released Wednesday. At the same time, the officials saw “a number of tentative signs that inflation pressures could be abating.” It was a mixed view that echoed Chair Jerome Powell’s noncommittal stance about future rate hikes at a news conference after the meeting. According to the minutes, the Fed’s policymakers also said that despite signs of progress on inflation, it remained well above their 2% target. They “would need to see more data … to be confident that inflation pressures were abating” and on track to return to their target. At the meeting, the Fed decided to raise its benchmark rate for the 11th time in 17 months in its ongoing drive to curb inflation. But in a stateme...

FEMA opens disaster recovery center on Maui to help victims of the wildfires. Follow live updates

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

By The Associated PressFollow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii, killing more than 100 people and destroying the historic town of Lahaina. The wildfires are the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Videos showing downed power lines apparently sparking some of the early blazes have become key evidence in the search for a cause.The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened its first disaster recovery center on Maui to help victims of the Lahaina wildfires.The agency is also sending in more dogs to help with search and recovery.Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator, on Wednesday called the center’s opening “an important first step.”The centers are temporary places where people can get information about assistance from multiple federal agencies, not just FEMA. They also can get their questions answered and get updates on the status of their aid applications.The number of canine search teams will be increased to mo...

Orioles highly touted catching prospect Samuel is learning to handle the pressure with Aberdeen IronBirds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

It’s difficult to completely shun the pressure that accompanies a résumé like Samuel Basallo’s.When the Orioles signed him out of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Jan. 15, 2021, he received $1.3 million, at the time the largest bonus the O’s had invested in an international prospect. He was 16 years old.Some are already dubbing him the ‘Dominican Adley Rutschman,’ playing catcher with a similarly imposing frame. Not to mention, now just past this 19th birthday, he has already scaled prospect boards from fringe MLB.com Top 100 to the 50th best prospect in baseball. The site rates Basallo as the No. 5 prospect in the Orioles’ system.Basallo was called up to Aberdeen from Low-A Delmarva on Aug. 1 and he may already be one of his team’s most versatile threats. In Tuesday’s 8-6 win over the visiting Wilmington Blue Rocks, he starred as the designated hitter. On Wednesday, according to manager Roberto Mercado, he’ll be a...

European countries see overtourism as an epidemic

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

Lacey Pfalz | (TNS) TravelPulseEuropean countries are some of the most popular destinations of the summer, and many of the cities and destinations facing record numbers of summer travelers are also putting new rules and regulations in place to hopefully curb the negative aspects of too many tourists.What is overtourism?The term ‘overtourism’ is getting more popular as destinations begin thinking long-term about their tourism strategies. It often goes hand-in-hand with sustainability initiatives, because having too many tourists than a destination can successfully manage is unsustainable.Overtourism can lead to housing shortages for locals — in February, Portugal passed laws that restricted the number of Airbnbs allowed in the country after foreigners began outpricing Portuguese locals, causing a housing crisis.It can also create more traffic, both pedestrian and automotive, as well as lead to greater pollution and litter. Droves of tourists can also be a drain on the residents who l...

Evacuations ordered after winds whip Northern California forest fire near site of 2022 deadly blaze

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

HAMBURG, Calif. (AP) — Rural areas near California’s border with Oregon were under evacuation orders Wednesday after gusty winds from a thunderstorm sent a lightning-sparked wildfire racing through national forest lands, authorities said.The blaze in Siskiyou County, dubbed the Head Fire, was one of at least 19 fires — most of them tiny — that erupted in the Klamath National Forest as thunderstorms brought lightning and downdrafts that drove the flames through timber and rural lands.An overflight late Tuesday measured the fire at 4.2 square miles (10.8 square kilometers), slightly smaller than initial estimates after it grew rapidly in just a few hours. A forest statement said fire behavior also decreased during the night.In this photo provided by Caltrans, smoke rises from the Head Fire in Klamath National Forest, Calif., on Tuesday Aug. 15, 2023. A wildfire pushed by gusty winds from a thunderstorm raced through national forest land near California's border with Oregon,...

What to stream: A summer syllabus for the movies you may have missed

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:36 GMT

Katie Walsh | (TNS) Tribune News ServiceAugust is a weird movie month: a lot of folks are on vacation, the big summer blockbusters are petering out and the fall festival and awards season movies are just out of reach. It’s the perfect time to catch up with the best films from the first half of the year, especially those that may have flown under the radar.Like father like son: Brandon Cronenberg (son of David) unveiled his sophomore feature “Infinity Pool” in January, starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgard, as a pair of vacation friends whose high-end trip goes increasingly off the rails (manslaughter, drug-fueled orgies, the creation of clones to be executed in one’s stead). Stream the delightfully twisted “Infinity Pool” on Hulu or rent it elsewhere.French actress Laure Calamy stars in the taut domestic drama “Full Time,” as a woman on the run — literally. Writer/director Eric Gravel configures the story of a divorced mother of two striving to pull her family out of poverty as ...