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Live updates | Israeli troops surround Gaza City. Communications being restored to territory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

Israeli troops divided the northern and southern parts of Gaza, as communications across the besieged territory were temporarily cut Monday for a third time since the war started. The troops are expected to enter Gaza City on Monday or Tuesday, Israeli media reported.The developments came after Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of people, health officials said. Israel has so far rejected U.S. suggestions that it take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza amid rising civilian deaths. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank on Sunday for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 9,700 with more than 4,000 of them children and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In...

EU allocates more than €26 million in additional humanitarian aid to East Africa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

The Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes regions continue to face multiple and overlapping humanitarian crises, aggravated by conflict and climate-related disasters. To help mitigate the consequences, the Commission has allocated additional humanitarian funding of €26.7 million to South Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, primarily to support newly displaced people fleeing conflicts and climatic events.In South Sudan, where around 2,000 people arrive daily from neighbouring Sudan, the additional funding of €6.4m will support humanitarian response in the border areas. Out of the new arrivals – refugees and South Sudanese returnees – 70% are women and children, and 1 in 5 are malnourished.In Somalia, around 2 million people will require emergency humanitarian assistance as a result of conflict, floods and cholera outbreak before the end of 2023. The additional €5.5m will support the overall humanitarian response in the country.€1.5m will strengthen food sec...

Dear Abby: The rest of the book club is appalled by the woman I invited

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I’m in a book club I started with friends 13 years ago. The 12 of us have grown close, and we value, appreciate and respect each other.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: My sister-in-law always has ‘other plans.’ Should I stop asking? Advice | Dear Abby: I haven’t told my wife what I know. Should I stick around? Advice | Dear Abby: I just wanted to sit in their house for a few hours, and they wouldn’t let me in Advice | Dear Abby: I just learned my brother knew a secret that would have changed my life Advice | Dear Abby: My sister says this skeevy man needs to be part of our family I recently invited a childhood friend to join. She’s an avid reader.Abby, although she’s a nice person, she simply does not fit in with the group.She talks too much, tends to brag a lot and makes insensitive comments. An example: Two of us are leaving on a cruise soon, and ...

This Week in Business: Consumer borrowing, consumer sentiment, small business update

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

Borrowing barometer The Federal Reserve delivers its monthly snapshot of U.S. consumer borrowing on Tuesday.The tally, which excludes mortgages and other loans secured by real estate, is expected to show consumer borrowing rose by $7.5 billion in September. Consumer borrowing is being watched closely by economists and investors as interest rates have risen to their highest level in more than two decades.Consumer credit, monthly change, seasonally adjusted, billions of dollars:April: 14.4May: 0June: 13.8July: 11.0Aug.: -15.6Sept. (est.) 7.5Source: FactSetSmall business checkupA monthly index that tracks small firms’ view of the U.S. economy and their business prospects is due out Thursday.The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index slipped in September, the 21st straight reading below the index’s 49-year average. The index is based on data from surveys of firms in the National Federation of Independent Business.NFIB small business index, by month:April: 89May: 89.4June: 91July: 91.9...

Polish President Duda set to nominate prime minister Monday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

President Andrzej Duda will nominate a candidate for prime minister who will get the first shot at forming a Polish government in a speech on Monday evening, his head of Cabinet said.Duda’s decision, made after “consultation and deep consideration,” is “final,” Marcin Mastalerek, the head of Duda’s office, wrote on social media.Poland’s three largest opposition parties said after the October 15 election that they were ready to build a coalition led by Donald Tusk, a former PM and European Council president, to replace the incumbent Law and Justice (PiS) party and asked Duda to allow them the first opportunity to form a government. Tusk’s Civic Coalition, together with the center-right Third Way and the Left, have 248 seats in the 460-member lower house of parliament.PiS came in first in the election, winning 194 seats, but is unlikely to be able to find partners to bring it to the needed parliamentary majority of 231. However, Duda — wh...

Zelenskyy’s top aide slams West over ‘war fatigue’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

World leaders should stick by Ukraine, despite the additional demands of dealing with the Israel-Hamas war, the Ukrainian president’s powerful chief of staff told POLITICO in an interview from Kyiv.Andrii Yermak, head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also pushed back hard on the idea, voiced last week by Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni in a call with Russian pranksters, that many are growing tired of the war in Ukraine. On Friday Ukraine faced its biggest barrage of drone attacks in weeks on critical infrastructure in the south and west of the country.Meloni said in the prank call — in which she thought she was speaking to the president of the African Union — that there was “a lot of fatigue … from all sides,” and that “everyone understands that we need a way out.” Yermak retorted: “Even if there are people who feel this fatigue, I’m sure they don’t want to wake up in a world tomorrow where there will be less freedom and le...

In the news today: Canadians in Gaza still waiting to cross into Egypt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…No update on border crossing for Canadians in GazaCanadians trapped in the Gaza Strip who were previously told they could be allowed out over the weekend will have to wait longer for escape from the besieged Palestinian territory.The Rafah border crossing into Egypt remained closed over the weekend amid escalating attacks from Israel and Global Affairs Canada says it has no information on when it will reopen.The crossing is the only exit point for foreign nationals who wish to leave the Palestinian territory, which has been under constant bombardment since the Israeli army launched retaliatory attacks for the brutal Oct. 7 incursion by Hamas.Health care, energy costs on premiers agendaHealth care and the effect of carbon pricing measures on the rising cost of living across Canada are slated to take centre stage at today’s meeting of the country’s pr...

Germany’s Scholz faces pressure to curb migration as he meets state governors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz is to meet Germany’s 16 state governors on Monday to address ways to deal with large numbers of migrants, an issue that has become a huge political problem for the government.Shelters for migrants and refugees are filling up and Scholz, who faces enormous pressure from the opposition and elsewhere to halt that trend, has said that “too many are coming.” The country also has seen more than 1 million Ukrainians arrive since the start of Russia’s war in their homeland. Over recent weeks, there has been a flurry of government activity, including legislation to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers, to stiffen punishment for smugglers and to allow asylum-seekers to start working sooner, and the introduction of temporary checks on the Polish, Czech and Swiss borders. The center-left Scholz also has discussed the issue twice with the conservative opposition leader since state elections last month brought poor results for his quarrelsome...

Northeast China sees first major blizzard this season and forecasters warn of record snowfall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Heavy snow blanketed swaths of China’s northeastern region, shutting schools and halting transportation in the first major snowstorm of the season. Major highways in the northeastern city of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, were closed and flights canceled, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. Elementary and middle schools also canceled classes for Monday. The National Meteorological Center said Monday that snowfall is likely to “breakthrough the historical records” for the same period. Heavy snowstorms are expected to continue in parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, with snow depth reaching 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) in some places.Footage showed delivery trucks stranded bumper to bumper, stretching 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) outside the city.Chaoyang city in neighboring Liaoning province and Chifeng in Inner Mongolia province also closed their schools and kindergartens. China’s weather authorities issued an orange alert on...

Hundreds of thousands of Quebec public sector workers on strike today

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:52:54 GMT

MONTREAL — Hundreds of thousands of Quebec public sector workers are off the job today in the first of a series of one-day strikes.Schools, health care facilities and social services will all be disrupted as four unions representing a “common front” of some 420,000 workers go on strike to protest the province’s latest contract offer.The unions are promising a historic fight to preserve their purchasing power during a time of high inflation. The government’s latest offer includes a 10.3 per cent salary increase over five years and a one-time payment of $1,000 to each worker — a proposal the unions have described as “paltry.”The strike will last from midnight until 10:30 a.m. in elementary and secondary schools, and until noon in junior colleges.Some health and social services including mental health, youth protection and medical imagery will operate at between 70 and 85 per cent capacity, depending on the department, while emergency and inten...