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Spanish election: Catalan separatists demand amnesty as the price for backing Sánchez

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

BRUSSELS — Separatist leader Carles Puigdemont on Monday laid down his conditions for supporting Pedro Sánchez’ bid to stay on as Spain’s prime minister: an amnesty to those involved in the 2017 illegal Catalan independence referendum.Speaking to supporters in Brussels, where he has lived in self-imposed exile since fleeing Spain six years ago, the former president of the Catalonia region declared that “the end of the persecution of the independence movement is a matter of dignity.”Puigdemont urged Sánchez, who is currently Spain’s caretaker leader, to order the country’s prosecutors to suspend their cases against those involved in the movement. Although he did not explicitly demand Sánchez let him hold a second independence referendum, Puigdemont said that talks would hinge on “recognition and respect for the democratic legitimacy of the independence movement.” “Self-determination is the recognition of the Catalan nation,”...

Summer In Session

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

Back to school, back to work, and… back to some more summer weather. High temps yesterday ran close to 80 at the coast and near 90 inland. Today, it’ll be about the same, just even a couple degrees warmer. That’ll put temps 80-85 at the coast and 89-92 inland. There is a heat advisory in place for southern NH, away from the coast, and back into the CT river valley. That’s where the heat index will run 95-99 the next couple of afternoons. No school, no work for you today? You have a nice beach day ahead, just watch out for a few rip currents out there. Waves run 3-5 feet as well. The heat peaks for many of us Thursday with highs 90-94. That’s when Boston will have the best chance of hitting 90 since the sea breeze likely keeps it below 90 today and tomorrow. The best chance of nearing records will be inland too over the next few days. Worcester will be very close to tying the record today and Thursday. Boston’s record on Thursday to beat is 102 set...

Biden will award Medal of Honor to Army helicopter pilot who rescued soldiers in a Vietnam firefight

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor on Tuesday to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life by flying into heavy enemy fire to save four members of a reconnaissance team from almost certain death as they were about to be overrun.Biden is recognizing retired Capt. Larry Taylor of Tennessee at the White House.On the night of June 18, 1968, then-1st Lt. Taylor flew his Cobra attack helicopter to rescue the men after they had become surrounded by the enemy.Taylor, now 81, recalled in an interview last week that he had to figure out how to get them out, otherwise “they wouldn’t make it.”David Hill, one of the four Taylor saved that night, said his actions were what “we now call thinking outside the box.”Hill and the others were on a night mission to track the movement of enemy troops in a village near the Saigon River when they were discovered by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. An intense firefight ensued and ...

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio faces sentencing in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio will be sentenced on Tuesday for a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to stop the transfer of presidential power after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Tarrio will be the final Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack to receive his punishment. Three fellow Proud Boys found guilty by a Washington jury of the rarely used sedition charge were sentenced last week to prison terms ranging from 15 to 18 years. The Justice Department wants the 39-year-old Tarrio to spend more than three decades in prison, describing him as the ringleader of a plot to use violence to shatter the cornerstone of American democracy and overturn the election victory by Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, the Republican incumbent. Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6 — he was arrested two days earlier in a separate case — but prosecutors say he helped put in motion and encourage the ...

UN food agency drops aid to another 2 million hungry people in Afghanistan due to cash shortfall

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.N. food agency said Tuesday it must drop another 2 million hungry people from food assistance in Afghanistan this month due to a massive funding shortfall.The action means that 10 million people will be cut off from the agency’s support this year in the country, the World Food Programme said in a statement. The new cuts mean the agency will be able to provide food assistance to about a fifth of the 15 million people who need it in Afghanistan, the agency said. “Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions of families scrambling for their next meal,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP’s director in Afghanistan. “With the few resources we have left, we are not able to serve all those people teetering on the edge of utter destitution.” The Taliban promised a more moderate rule than during their previous period in power in the 1990s. But they have imposed harsh measures since sei...

Thailand’s new government takes office as Cabinet members take oath in front of king

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s new government officially took office on Tuesday, almost four months after the country’s general election, as new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin led the 34 members of his Cabinet to take their oaths of office in front of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Srettha, representing the Pheu Thai party, was named prime minister by Parliament on Aug. 22 after weeks of delay because of disagreement over the formation of a coalition.The 61-year-old Srettha, a prominent real estate developer who officially entered politics last year, also holds the finance minister’s post. He presided over the traditional group photograph in front of Government House in Bangkok with his Cabinet members wearing their white civil servant uniforms. He later held a brief news conference, saying his government is determined to do its best to represent the Thai people and solve many pressing problems that the country is facing.“I believe it is time that we should pull together and give this Cabine...

South African government announces official inquiry into deadly Johannesburg building fire

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A retired Constitutional Court judge will lead an official inquiry into last week’s fire at a derelict building in downtown Johannesburg that left at least 76 people dead in one of South Africa’s worst tragedies, the government said Tuesday.Justice Sisi Khampepe will lead a three-member panel seeking to establish “who must shoulder total responsibility for this tragedy,” the government said. The inquiry will also look at the prevalence of rundown buildings that are illegally “hijacked.”The fire ripped through a city-owned building that had effectively been abandoned by authorities and taken over by unofficial “landlords” who were illegally renting out space to around 200 poor families desperately looking for some form of accommodation.People were living in shacks and other informal structures crammed into the five-story building, including in the basement parking garage, emergency responders said. The crowding and lack of ...

GTA bracing for record-breaking heat as kids head back to class

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

Most students in the GTA are heading back to the classroom on Tuesday on what is expected to be the hottest day of the year.The sweltering temperatures could potentially break records as kids and teachers return to mostly unairconditioned schools amid a heat warning that remains in place for nearly all of Ontario.“A hot and humid airmass is expected through Wednesday,” reads the warning from Environment Canada. “Humidex values and daytime highs will be very atypical of early September.”Tuesday could be the hottest day of the year so far. Monday saw a high of 34 C, the CityNews guaranteed high for Tuesday is 35 C, feeling more like 43 with the humidity.“It could be the hottest day of summer and we could potentially break a record for Sep. 5,” says CityNews meteorologist Jill Taylor. “The record for this date, 34.2 C set in 2018.”Already feels like 30 as of 5:45am this Tuesday morning! It will feel close to 43 with the humidity this afte...

The next presidential campaign is coming into focus. It might look a lot like the last one

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The end of Labor Day weekend would typically mark the start of a furious sprint to the Iowa caucuses as candidates battle for their party’s presidential nomination. But as the 2024 campaign comes into greater focus, the usual frenzy is yielding to a sense of inevitability. Among Republicans, Donald Trump is dominating the primary field, outpacing rivals with resumes as governors, diplomats and entrepreneurs that would normally prove compelling. The former president’s strength comes despite — or perhaps because of — multiple criminal indictments that threaten to overshadow any serious debate about the future of the country. And for now, the tens of millions of dollars that Republican rivals are pouring into the race are doing little to diminish Trump’s stature, fueling concerns among his GOP critics who fear the primary is essentially over before it begins. As one troubled front-runner tightens his grip on the Republican nomination, President Joe Bid...

Myanmar won’t be allowed to lead Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2026, in blow to generals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:14:57 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Southeast Asian leaders decided that Myanmar won’t take over the rotating leadership of their regional bloc as scheduled in 2026, Asian diplomats and a leader said Tuesday, in the latest blow to efforts by its ruling generals to gain international recognition after violently seizing power in 2021.Western governments led by the United States have condemned the Myanmar army’s ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in 2021 and have demanded her immediate release from yearslong detention along with other officials.The Philippines agreed to take over the regional bloc’s chairmanship in 2026 at an ASEAN summit hosted by Indonesia on Tuesday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement, citing what he told fellow leaders in the closed-door meetings.“It is my pleasure to announce that the Philippines is ready to take the helm and chair ASEAN in 2026,” Marcos told his ASEAN counterparts in Jakarta, the statement said.Marcos ...