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Italy floods trigger blame game

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

ROME — The worst floods in 100 years have triggered finger pointing over Italy’s slow progress in stabilizing its land and soil despite throwing billions at the problem. Torrential rains following months of drought have caused floods in the northern and eastern regions of Emilia Romagna and Le Marche that have killed at least 14 people and left an estimated 20,000 homeless. Dozens of cities and towns were submerged and thousands of landslides occurred after around six months’ rain fell in 48 hours. Pierluigi Randi, the president of Ampro, the association of weather experts, said it was the worst flood to affect Italy in a century.The floods sparked a torrent of questions about why vast amounts of funding allocated for structural works to counter hydrogeological instability has never been used. Italy is particularly vulnerable to flooding: It suffers two-thirds of Europe’s landslides; 94 percent of municipalities are at risk of landslides, flooding or coastal erosion; and...

Spat May Underscore Larger House-Senate Power Struggle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

The fireworks on Beacon Hill this week over rules and scheduling in one legislative committee — normally a mundane topic — were touched off by what multiple Senate offices said was a broader push by the House to assert dominance over the committee process, while a House chair contended his joint panel had been held “hostage” from doing its work.At issue are proposed rules changes that one House chair said would prevent a lawmaker from holding up the flow of legislation, while several senators said the changes would empower the House side of a committee to mount greater control over what’s intended to be a collaborative bill-crafting process.Two months have flown by since all of the Legislature’s 30-plus joint committees failed to meet a March 16 deadline to agree on internal rules that govern their hearings and voting procedures, and still, not a single panel has filed any rules for this session with the clerks’ offices.By contrast, a third ...

Debt limit talks stall as Republicans ‘press pause,’ criticize White House

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top debt ceiling negotiator for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday it’s time to “press pause” on talks as negotiations with the White House came to an abrupt standstill at the Capitol.Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., tapped by McCarthy, R-Calif., to lead the talks, emerged from an hourlong session and said gaps remained between House Republicans and the Democratic administration.“It’s time to press pause because it’s just not productive,” Graves told reporters.He added that the negotiations have become “just unreasonable” and that it was unclear when talks would resume.Wall Street turned lower as talks on raising the nation’s debt limit came to a sudden halt, raising worries that the country could edge closer to risking a highly damaging default on U.S. government debt.President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to strike a deal with Republicans led by McCarthy as the nation careens toward a potentially catastrophic debt de...

Biden endorses F-16 training for Ukrainians as Zelenskyy set to take part in G7 summit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

By ZEKE MILLER, FOSTER KLUG, JOSH BOAK, and ELAINE KURTENBACH (Associated Press)HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — President Joe Biden told allies Friday he was approving plans to train Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, according to two people familiar with the matter, as leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies worked to toughen punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine.The Group of Seven leaders are meeting in Hiroshima, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to take part in their summit on Sunday.The green light on F-16 training is the latest shift by the Biden administration as it moves to arm Ukraine with more advanced and lethal weaponry, following earlier decisions to send rocket launcher systems and Abrams tanks. The U.S. has insisted that it is sending weapons to Ukraine to defend itself and has discouraged attacks by Ukraine into Russian territory.The G7 leaders also used their summit to roll out a new wave of global sanct...

Hot-hitting Seiya Suzuki is getting locked in and doing damage as Chicago Cubs offense tries to get on track

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

The home run power the Chicago Cubs expected from Seiya Suzuki is finally emerging.Finding his timing has been a work in progress for Suzuki after not appearing in a spring training game because of an oblique strain that caused him to begin the season on the injured list. 129 plate appearances later, Suzuki, 28, is heating up at a time the offense desperately needs some punch.Suzuki’s stellar performance Wednesday in Houston — hitting two home runs and reaching base five times — was overshadowed by the Cubs’ implosion en route to their fifth consecutive loss. Suzuki became the first Japanese player in MLB history to hit a home run in three consecutive plate appearances. He was the first Cubs hitter to do so since Kris Bryant on May 17, 2019.In the past week, the outfielder is 10-for-25 with three doubles, four home runs, five walks and six strikeouts. Among Cubs hitters, his .372 on-base percentage is third best while his 134 OPS+ trails Christopher Morel (22...

Debt limit talks stall as Republicans ‘press pause,’ White House says real differences

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

By KEVIN FREKING, LISA MASCARO and ZEKE MILLER (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Debt ceiling talks came to an abrupt standstill Friday after a top ally to Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said it’s time to “press pause” on negotiations, and a White House official acknowledged there are “real differences” that are making talks difficult.Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., tapped by McCarthy, R-Calif., to lead the talks, emerged from an hourlong session and said gaps remained between House Republicans and the Democratic administration.“It’s time to press pause because it’s just not productive,” Graves told reporters.He added that the negotiations have become “just unreasonable” and that it was unclear when talks would resume. A White House official, who was granted anonymity Friday to discuss the private conversations, said there are “real differences” between the parties on the budget issues and furt...

Young adults are vacationing on financial thin ice

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

Prices for travel remain stubbornly high. The cost of airfare in February was 27% higher than the same month a year earlier, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. And rental car prices — having shot up during the pandemic — remain high today, as they’re 37% pricier in February than they were in the same month in 2019.Yet costlier travel is not deterring younger Americans who are eager to hit the road (and the skies) this year.A whopping 87% of 18-to-29-year-olds and 90% of 30-to-44-year-olds intend to travel this summer, according to a March survey by The Vacationer. If the economy is slowing, younger travelers aren’t heeding the memo.“When I meet with folks, they’re not budgeting,” says Dylan Snowden, a financial coach. “Most will just think about hotels and flight, but not the fact that they need to feed themselves three times a day.”Ignoring the broader economic trends (like the rising cost of eating out) could mean stormy financial waters ahead for these vacat...

Judge blocks release of video, records in Tyre Nichols beating death investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge on Friday continued to temporarily block the release of more video footage and records in the investigation into Tyre Nichols’ death, but said he does want to make public as much information as possible that would not interfere with the rights to a fair trial for five Memphis police officers facing charges.Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr. asked prosecutors to outline the information they think should and should not be be released to the public, and then give the list to defense attorneys. Jones set deadlines in June for prosecutors to hand over to defense lawyers the information from existing video footage and about 2,500 pages of documents that should be be released and for the defense to raise their objections.Prosecutor Paul Hagerman and defense attorneys agreed that they have no objection to the release of most police personnel records that pre-dated Nichols’ beating. But they both also agreed that the release of so...

Milan’s La Scala and Paris Opera commission opera based on Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Italian composer Francesco Filidei has been commissioned by Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and the Paris Opera to write a new opera based on Umberto Eco’s most famous novel “The Name of the Rose,” the opera houses announced Friday. The world premiere has already been scheduled, at La Scala on April 27, 2025, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher and starring mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsay and baritone Lucas Meachem. La Scala’s general manager, Dominique Meyer, called the new commission “a very important opera.” “The Name of the Rose” was Eco’s debut novel, a medieval thriller set in a monastery. It catapulted him to international celebrity and was made into a 1986 film starring Sean Connery. Eco died at home in Milan in 2016.Filidei is working on two versions, one in Italian and one in French, the second to premiere at the Paris Opera. The 50-year-old Filidei has composed two previous operas: “Giordano Bruno,” which premiered in Porto, Portugal in 2015 and ...

Sean Penn, backing WGA strike, says AI dispute is ‘a human obscenity’ at Cannes Film Festival

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:00 GMT

CANNES, France (AP) — Sean Penn strongly backed the current Hollywood screenwriters strike while speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, saying the dispute over artificial intelligence is “a human obscenity.” Penn addressed the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike in a press conference for his new film, “Black Flies,” director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s harrowing, gritty drama about New York paramedics. Asked about the strike, Penn said “the industry has been upending the writers and actors and directors for a very long time.” “There’s a lot of new concepts being tossed about including the use of AI It strikes me as a human obscenity for there to be pushback on that from the producers,” said Penn, a veteran writer-director in addition to being an actor. Film and TV screenwriters earlier this month began striking after talks with producers broke off. The WGA is seeking better pay, new contracts for the streaming era and safeguards against the use of AI-scripted work-ar...