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Rishi Sunak warns against ‘rush to judgment’ over Gaza hospital blast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

LONDON — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned there should be no “rush to judgment” over who was behind the explosion at Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital. Speaking in the House of Commons at weekly prime minister’s questions, Sunak refused to attribute blame for the Tuesday night blast, telling MPs: “We should not rush to judgment before we have all the facts on this awful situation.”  He met the National Security Adviser, and the chair of the cross-governmental Joint Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday morning, he told MPs.It comes after U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the attack, which killed hundreds on Tuesday night, appears to have been committed by the “other team, not you.” Biden landed in Israel on Wednesday.Hamas, however, said the explosion was a result of an Israeli airstrike, whilst the IDF has blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Sunak de...

Swedish PM: ‘I don’t blame Belgium’ over terror attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Wednesday he did not blame Belgium for Monday’s terror attack, as he called for stricter border security across Europe.Kristersson traveled to Brussels to attend a commemoration in honor of the two victims of Monday’s attack, in which a gunman shot and killed two Swedish football fans.Shortly after the vigil in Brussels, Kristersson held a joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, where the leaders spoke about the need to better protect European borders and to create more efficient return policies for migrants.  “It’s a fight we will win and we will win it together,” De Croo said. “It is also clear that more united European action is needed.”The attacker — who was killed by police on Tuesday morning — was a 45-year-old Tunisian man who had been living in Belgium illegally since his request for asylum was rejected in 2020. The gunman was well known...

Berlin synagogue firebombed: Olaf Scholz condemns attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned antisemitic attacks after Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in Berlin in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Two masked people escaped without being caught, according to German media reports, after throwing firebombs at the building — and missing their target. “Fortunately, persons and buildings remained unharmed,” the synagogue announced Wednesday, adding that a criminal investigation has started. Scholz — who is currently in Egypt, after visiting Israel on Tuesday — condemned the attacks against Jewish institutions, calling them “inhuman, abhorrent and not to be tolerated. Antisemitism has no place in Germany,” he said.“My thanks go to the security forces, especially in this situation,” Scholz added. However, German news outlet Tagesspiegel reported that the security officers protecting the building were present at the time of the attack, but failed both to prevent it happening and arrest...

New York City lithium battery fires spark new data tool in Massachusetts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

The State Fire Marshal’s office has created a tool to better track the number of fires involving lithium-ion batteries, as electric vehicles, e-bikes and scooters catch ablaze.Investigators assigned to the office are now collecting a host of information when responding to fires involving lithium-ion batteries, such as make and model of the device, purchase history, and whether it was charging at the time of the blaze.Such fires are on the increase nationwide, officials say, particularly in New York City, as more and more people seek items powered by lithium-ion batteries. Smaller devices include e-cigarettes and smartphones.“Across the country, and most visibly in New York City, fires caused by or involving lithium-ion batteries are on the rise, and often with deadly consequences,” State Fire Marshal Jon Davine said in an announcement Tuesday. “One of the greatest challenges in addressing the increase in these fires is quantifying them.The number of fires sparked by batteries in Mas...

House speaker live updates | Jim Jordan set to try again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House plans to return for a second round of balloting for House speaker on Wednesday morning as Jim Jordan fights to win over his many holdouts for the job to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy.Jordan lost 20 Republican votes Tuesday and pleaded afterward to his colleagues that they “must stop attacking each other and come together.”Jim Jordan’s rapid rise has been cheered by Trump and the far rightHow the vote for a new speaker worksScalise ends bid to become speaker as holdouts refuse to back himMcCarthy was an early architect of the GOP majority that became his downfallBipartisan groups of lawmakers have been floating ways to operate the House by giving greater power to the interim speaker, Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, or another temporary speaker. The House had never ousted its speaker before Kevin McCarthy, and the lawmakers are in rarely tested terrain.Two former Republican House speakers, Newt Gingrich and John Boehner, have come out...

Live updates | Cease-fire pleas and Israel-Hamas recriminations rise in wake of Gaza hospital blast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

By The Associated PressPresident Joe Biden is in Israel on an urgent mission to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader regional conflict and to encourage the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.The president’s visit on Wednesday came after hundreds of people were reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital the night before. The Hamas militant group blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by members of another Palestinian militant group. The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in the past 11 days.More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.Currently:Here’s what’s happening in the la...

Biden tells Netanyahu Gaza hospital hit 'appears' to be 'by the other team, not you'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

President Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday where he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that an explosion at a hospital in Gaza was not caused by Israel but "appears" to be the responsibility of "the other team."“The point is, is that I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you, but there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got a lot—we’ve got to overcome a lot of things,” Biden said.The president arrived Wednesday morning local time in Israel for a whirlwind trip to the Jewish state amid rising tensions in the Middle East. Terrorist attacks by Hamas, a militant group that controls Gaza, that left more than 1,000 Israelis dead. Israel's retaliation on Gaza has killed thousands there and raised alarms about a growing humanitarian crisis.The trip became increasingly fraught after a hospital explosion in Gaza on Tuesday that killed hundre...

Woman from Toronto believed to be among hostages held in Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

A woman who grew up in Toronto is believed to be among the hostages being held by Hamas militants in Gaza.The Israeli Consulate in Toronto says 70-year-old Judih Weinstein is the eighth known Canadian victim of the Hamas attack. The consulate says the retired English teacher and her husband were ambushed and kidnapped to Gaza during a morning walk on Oct. 7.Weinstein is originally from Toronto, according to the consulate.The couple reportedly shared a 40-second video in a family group chat on the day of the attack, but have had no contact since then. Their family used the video to pinpoint the couple’s last known location and shared it with the Israeli army, but a search came up empty.Their daughter, Iris Weinstein Haggai, has been relentlessly looking for answers from her home in Singapore. The family heard ominous news from a paramedic, who said Weinstein had called for medical help.Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Wednesday that six Canadians are confirmed dead and two ...

Erik Larson’s next book closely tracks the months leading up to the Civil War

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The next book by Erik Larson, widely known for the best-selling “The Devil in the White City,” is a work of Civil War history inspired in part by current events.Crown announced Wednesday that Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest: Subtitle: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War” will come out April 30. Larson sets his narrative over a short but momentous time span, from Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 to the firing on Fort Sumter five months later.During a recent telephone interview, Larson said he was initially inspired by his reading of historical documents and how he could weave them into a “tick-tock” chronology of the country’s fracturing and descent into armed conflict, driven by “the human element — the hubris, the personalities, the ambitions, the egos.” “And then comes January 6,” he added, referring to the 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. “I have to tell you, it was the wei...

Former Missouri officer who fatally shot a Black man turns himself in after losing appeal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:15 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former detective in Missouri convicted in the death a Black man in 2019 is now jailed after losing an appeal of his conviction despite unusual support from the state’s Republican attorney general.Eric J. DeValkenaere had been free on bond during the appeal, but a judge revoked bond Tuesday and ordered a warrant for his arrest. DeValkenaere went to the Platte County jail himself Tuesday and surrendered, Maj. Erik Holland of the sheriff’s office told the Kansas City Star. He will be held there until he is transferred to a Missouri prison.DeValkenaere’s lawyer declined comment to The Associated Press.DeValkenaere, who is white, was found guilty in 2021 of second-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. Lamb was parking a pickup truck in his Kansas City back yard when the officer shot him after reports Lamb was in a car chase with his girlfriend.The judge who found DeValkenaere guilty in a bench trial s...