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Germany’s government waters down a cost-cutting plan that infuriated the country’s farmers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Thursday watered down cost-saving plans that have infuriated farmers, announcing that it is giving up a proposal to scrap a car tax exemption for farming vehicles and will stagger cuts to tax breaks for diesel used in agriculture.The cuts were part of a package agreed last month by leaders of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition to fill a 17 billion-euro ($18.6 billion) hole in the 2024 budget. Farmers staged a protest with tractors in Berlin and threatened more demonstrations this month, and even Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir spoke out against the cuts being implemented in full. He said farmers have no alternative to diesel.The budget revamp was necessary after Germany’s highest court annulled an earlier decision to repurpose 60 billion euros (almost $66 billion) originally meant to cushion the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic for measures to help combat climate change and modernize the country. The maneuver fell foul of G...

Feeling caucus confusion? Your guide to how Iowa works

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The race for the White House officially begins in less than two weeks, and despite some prolonged jockeying over the election calendar, the long primary season will once again begin in Iowa with a caucus process that has served as the lead-off voting event since the 1970s.While Iowa has played an outsize role in presidential politics for generations, the details of how the caucuses actually work can surprise and mystify even hard-core political junkies. The Republican process this year is largely unchanged, but there are significant changes to the traditional voting schedule on the Democratic side. Much of what you think you know about the Iowa caucuses may no longer be applicable in 2024.Since the contested Iowa caucuses of 2016 and 2020 may seem like a long time ago, here’s an update of what they are, how they work and why they matter.What is a caucus?A political caucus is a gathering of people with a shared interest or goal. The Iowa caucuses are a series of loc...

Iran suspects suicide bombers carried out attack on commemoration for slain general that killed 84

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Investigators believe suicide bombers likely carried out an attack on a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike, state media reported Thursday, as Iran grappled with its worst militant attack in decades and as the wider Mideast remains on edge. The report by the state-run IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed “informed source.” Wednesday’s attack in Kerman killed at least 84 people and wounded another 284. It targeted a ceremony honoring Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, held as an icon by supporters of the country’s theocracy and viewed by the U.S. military as a deadly foe who aided militants who killed American troops in Iraq. No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack. The IRNA report quoted the official as saying that surveillance footage from the route to the commemoration at Kerman’s Matryrs Cemetery clearly showed a male suicide bomber detonating explosives. The offici...

Italian Premier Meloni says curbing migrant arrivals from Africa is about investment, not charity

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told her European Union partners Thursday that curbing migration flows from African countries has less to do with offers of charity than strong partnerships coupled with strategic investments in those nations. Meloni told reporters at a year-end news conference that last month’s deal on the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact partially improved the situation for Italy and other asylum countries, but does not represent a solution to increasing migrant arrivals.“What needs to be done in Africa is not charity,” she said. “What needs to be done in Africa is to build cooperation and serious strategic relationships as equals, not predators.”Meloni also stressed the need “to defend the right not to have to emigrate … and this is done with investments and a strategy.”Reforms EU leaders agreed on last month are based on a new set of regulations governing how member states respond to people arriving in Europe. The deal has been ha...

PGA Tour starts a new year that feels like the old one. There’s more to golf than just the golf

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — One upside for the PGA Tour extending the Dec. 31 deadline to finalize a deal with Saudi Arabia is the new season starting Thursday at Kapalua can avoid a big distraction. The focus finally returns to golf.Except that it really doesn’t.The new year feels a lot like the old one — questions about a fractured landscape, more money than ever that still doesn’t seems to be enough, LIV Golf gearing up for another season while fans wonder who will be the next player to get an offer he can’t refuse.All of which led Mackenzie Hughes and Patrick Cantlay to long for the good old days, even if they didn’t necessarily agree on the dates.Hughes referred to 2019 as the “peak of professional golf,” at least for someone his age (33). It was the year before the COVID-19 pandemic. Tiger Woods was the Masters champion.“Our economic model was sustainable,” he said. “The LIV threat came along and all of a sudden we started to double the purses, and we’...

Teen among 2 suspects sought in knifepoint robbery at Richmond Hill pharmacy

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

Police are searching for two suspects, including a teenage boy, following an armed robbery at a pharmacy in Richmond Hill.The alleged incident happened in the area of Elgin Mills and Redstone Road near Leslie Street around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.York Regional Police investigators say two suspects, one armed with a large kitchen knife, demanded money and then filled a bag with a quantity of narcotics and cash.Police say one of the suspects slapped an employee across the face before leaving the store.Investigators released the following descriptions of the suspects:Suspect #1 – male, Black, 14 to 15 years old, 5’7″ with a slim build, wearing a dark-coloured tracksuit, black sneakers, a black mask and white gloves, and carrying a reusable shopping bagSuspect #2 – as male, Black, 6′ with a slim build, wearing a black hoodie, black track pants, white sneakers, a black mask and white gloves, and carrying a large kitchen knifePolice say the suspects fled in a li...

Vatican says no heresy in allowing blessings for same-sex couples after pushback by some bishops

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

ROME (AP) — After pushback by some bishops in Africa, Poland and elsewhere, the Vatican on Thursday defended the recent move by Pope Francis to allow blessings for same-sex couples, insisting there is nothing “heretical” involved.In a five-page statement, the Holy See’s office to safeguard doctrinal orthodoxy expressed understanding that some bishops’ conferences need more time for “pastoral reflection” on the pontiff’s formal approval for such blessings.But “there is no room to distance ourselves doctrinally” from the Declaration about the blessings “or to consider it heretical, contrary to the Tradition of the Church or blasphemous,” said the statement by the office, formally called the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The new rule of blessings came last month in the form of a declaration, an important Catholic church document. Some bishops immediately said they wouldn’t implement the new policy.“Prudence and attention to the ecclesial context and to the local ...

Alice Hoffman’s new book will imagine Anne Frank’s life before she kept a diary

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — With the cooperation of the Anne Frank House, a novel based on Frank’s life immediately before she began keeping a diary will be released in September by the children’s publisher Scholastic.“When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary,” written by bestselling author Alice Hoffman, is scheduled for Sept. 17. The project was initiated by Scholastic editors Lisa Sandell and Miriam Farbey, who thought Hoffman ideal for telling the story. Hoffman is known for “Practical Magic” and other fiction about sorcery, but she also has written books for young people and a novel, “The World That We Knew,” about the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews.“In the year when I was 12, I discovered many of the books that have meant the most to me, books that changed my life,” Hoffman said in a statement issued Thursday by Scholastic.“The book that affected me more than any other was ‘The Diary of a Young Girl,’ by Anne Frank. It changed the way I looked at t...

Woman critical after being found unresponsive on CTA train

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

CHICAGO — A woman is hospitalized in critical condition after being found unresponsive on a CTA train.Police said the unidentified woman was found by transit employees on a train car around 1:35 a.m. Thursday in the 0-100 block of East Roosevelt.The woman was transported to Stroger Hospital and is listed in critical condition with a laceration to her face and contusions, according to police. Rideshare driver shot, in critical condition after apparent carjacking in Austin neighborhood The circumstances surrounding the incident are unknown at this time.Area Three Detectives are investigating.

2 teens charged with robbery, possession of stolen vehicle: CPD

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

CHICAGO -- Two teens are facing charges after a car was stolen on the Far North Side Wednesday evening.According to police, a 16-year-old boy faces felony charges of robbery armed with firearm and possessing a stolen vehicle. A 15-year-old boy is charged with a felony count of armed with firearm and a misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing to vehicle. Driver carjacked, battered at gas station on North Side: Police The teens were arrested in the 1600 block of West Monroe Street around 4:46 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. They were identified as the individuals who less than 30 minutes earlier, took property at gunpoint from a 26-year-old woman in the 100 block of West Elm Street in Gold Coast.Officers quickly located the individuals with a stolen vehicle. The teens were placed into custody and charged accordingly. There is no additional information at this time.