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Worldwide refugee numbers hit all-time high, says UN

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

The number of refugees worldwide reached a record high in 2022, according to the U.N.’s refugee agency. Russia’s war in Ukraine contributed to a record yearly increase of 19.1 million people fleeing from war and persecution, bringing the total figure up to 108.4 million at the end of 2022.These figures come days after EU ministers secured a hard-won deal to set common asylum rules for the bloc and speed up migrant returns outside of Europe.The UNHCR’s report published Wednesday confirmed that most refugees are hosted in developing countries which are closer to crisis areas.According to the U.N. agency, 76 percent of the world’s refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, with Turkey, Iran and Colombia topping the global ranking.“Much more international support and more equitable responsibility sharing is required, especially with those countries that are hosting most of the world’s displaced,” said Filippo Grandi, the U.N.’s high commissioner for refugees.Th...

Germany accuses China of ‘aggressively’ claiming supremacy in Asia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

BERLIN — Germany on Wednesday blasted China for acting against Europe’s interests, “aggressively claiming regional supremacy” in Asia and putting international security at risk.The criticism, which is part of a 76-page national security strategy Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has adopted, comes ahead of German-Chinese government consultations in Berlin next Tuesday, set to be led by Scholz and Chinese Premier Li Qiang. POLITICO reported Tuesday that the German government is keen to downsize the number of ministers participating in the summit to avoid giving allies the impression it’s too welcoming to China.While repeating the years-old EU policy of describing China as a “partner, competitor and systemic rival,” the German strategy document noted that “the elements of rivalry and competition have increased in recent years.”“China is trying in various ways to reshape the existing rules-based international order, is incre...

Key renewables vote in Council postponed over nuclear spat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

The Swedish Council presidency has again delayed the formal approval of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) as it tries to resolve a French-led feud among countries over the role of nuclear energy.EU ambassadors on Wednesday were due to sign off on REDIII, an integral part of the bloc’s flagship Fit for 55 climate package that aims to slash emissions by 55 percent by 2030 and ramp up the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 42.5 percent.But the vote was postponed until Friday to give EU countries time to digest a last-minute proposal by the Swedish presidency circulated late Tuesday meant to placate France, according to two diplomats, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about country dynamics.EU capitals and the Parliament reached a provisional deal on the text in March, but Paris has been pushing for a greater role for its atomic sector. Those efforts have riled nuclear-skeptic countries including Luxembourg and Germany, as well as countries previously sympath...

Google gets EU antitrust charges on ad tech business

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

Google may need to sell off part of its advertising business to prevent it from abusing its dominant position in the market and shutting out competitors, the European Commission said Wednesday as it sent antitrust charges to the search giant.Google “may have abused its dominant position by favoring its own ad tech business,” antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at a press conference on Wednesday.The ad tech sector is “highly dynamic,” Vestager said, and “has changed a lot over the last 15 years.” She said Google was “pervasive” across the ad tech value chain and that offloading one part of its business could be “the only way to solve this.”“We see no alternative so far at this stage of the investigation,” she added.The Commission said in a statement of objections that Google is dominant in both ad publishing and buying and had abused its position since 2014, favoring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of competitors. The antit...

Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks taking the ‘wait and see’ approach with right elbow inflammation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

Liam Hendriks first felt something not quite right in his right elbow around May 4, the day the Chicago White Sox reliever left to begin his rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte.“It’s been sore for the last few weeks, ever since before my rehab assignment it was barking, but my mantra is to pitch things until I can’t,” Hendriks said Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. “It kept getting a little worse and worse and worse until the last couple of outings I wasn’t able to pitch through that pain.“The more I throw, generally the better I feel. And this time, it wasn’t going away. It was lingering.”The Sox placed Hendriks on the 15-day injured list Saturday with right elbow inflammation, the team announced Sunday morning.“Structurally, it’s fine,” Hendriks said. “It’s all good. Or goodish for me. But it’s just a little inflammation that’s sitting on one of the wrong spots. Trying to get that eradica...

Daywatch: Breaking down the Bears’ growing number of options

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

Good morning, Chicago.Donald Trump became the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom Tuesday to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back.The history-making arraignment, centering on charges that Trump mishandled government secrets that as commander-in-chief he was entrusted to protect, kickstarts a legal process that will unfold at the height of the 2024 presidential campaign and carry profound consequences not only for his political future but also for his own personal liberty.Read the full story.And here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper editionJury hears reference to former Cook County Democratic boss Joe Berrios in bribery trial of his son-in-law, but not by nameFor the first time, the jury in the bribery trial of a politically connected businessman...

Howie Carr: It’s going to be a helluva 2024 campaign!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

Donald Trump was arraigned yesterday amid great fanfare in federal court in Miami. But he’s already planning his response, as he told me on my radio show Monday night.On his Truth Social account, Trump had promised, in all capital letters, that if re-elected, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate “THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY.”I asked him how serious he was about such a plan.“Well, they’ve opened up the box.”A lot of the news about Biden’s dodgy dealings was known back in 2020 – think Hunter Biden’s laptop and all his prodigious documentation of payoffs to “the Big Guy.” But Trump’s attorney general, blubbery Bill Barr, got the vapors whenever he considered going after his fellow travelers in the Deep State.“Look, Bill Barr is a weak coward and he didn’t want to do anything on this,” Trump said, referring to Democrat corruption in the executive branch. “And yet, in many ways, a lot of people, including me, said you know I get it. Because you don’t want to go after sitting p...

Erdogan says no change in Turkey’s stance on Sweden’s NATO membership

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that NATO should not bet on his country approving Sweden’s application to join the Western military alliance before a July summit because the Nordic nation has not fully addressed his security concerns. Sweden and Finland applied for membership together following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its request, but Turkey has held off approving Sweden’s bid.NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the leaders of member nations meet for a summit in Lithuania’s capital on July 11-12. Speaking to journalists on his way back from a state visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkey’s attitude to the accession was not “positive.”Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reported Erdogan’s comments as senior officials from NATO, Sweden, Finland and Turkey met in Ankara on Wednesday. The...

Stock market today: Wall Street futures mixed with Fed rate call imminent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

BEIJING — Wall Street futures are mixed Wednesday ahead of an interest rate policy decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve and new inflation data.Futures for the Dow fell about 0.1% before the bell and the S&P 500 ticked up 0.2%.A cooler reading on U.S. inflation on Tuesday buoyed hopes the Federal Reserve will announce that it is skipping an interest rate hike after its meeting Wednesday.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index hit a 14-month high after official data Tuesday showed U.S. consumer inflation eased to 4% over a year earlier in May from the previous month’s 4.9%. It was less than half last June’s peak of 9.1% but still double the Fed’s 2% target.Two Fed board members have said the U.S. central bank should put off a hike while it studies the impact of previous increases.“The Fed will see this as a window of opportunity to pause,” Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities said in a report.It is hoped that the U.S. economy can avoid a recession even after the Fed raised its ben...

Pope expected to be released soon from hospital after abdominal surgery: Vatican

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:36:00 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is expected to be released from the hospital “in the coming days,” as he recovers well and without complications from abdominal surgery last week, the Vatican said Wednesday.In his daily medical update, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis again rested well overnight, was at work during the day and had received the Eucharist during a moment of prayer in the chapel of his hospital suite.The 86-year-old pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on June 7 for surgery to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall and remove intestinal scar tissue that had caused intestinal blockages. Francis in 2021 had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed at Gemelli because of a narrowing of the intestine, and had at least two prior abdominal surgeries in Argentina.Citing Francis’ doctors, Bruni said the pope’s recovery “is proceeding regularly, without complications, and as such his discharge is planned for the coming days.”Daily Il Fatto Quotidiano quote...