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Leader of Spain’s conservatives has a slim chance of winning lawmakers’ approval for his government

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The leader of Spain’s conservatives is trying to convince lawmakers on Tuesday to let him form the country’s new government, a green light he is not expected to get during two rounds of voting in the Spanish parliament later this week. Spain’s July 23 national election gave Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s Popular Party the most seats in the parliament’s 350-member lower chamber but well shy of an absolute majority, setting the stage for a difficult path to power.Under the Spanish Constitution, two investiture votes will determine whether Feijóo has authorization to form a government — likely a coalition with the far-right Vox party. He needs approval from a simple majority of 176 lawmakers in the first vote, which is scheduled for Wednesday after hours of debate. If he misses that mark, the bar would be lowered for the second round, in which he would need only more “yes” than “no” votes. Abstentions could sway the result in that situation. The second vote is s...

Erdogan says Menendez resignation from Senate committee boosts Turkey’s bid to acquire F-16s

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s chances of acquiring F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. have been boosted by Sen. Bob Menendez stepping down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published Tuesday.Menendez, the senior Democratic senator for New Jersey, has been a vocal opponent of Turkey receiving aircraft to update its fighter fleet. He stood down from the influential role last week following federal charges that he took cash and gold in illegal exchange for helping the Egyptian government and New Jersey business associates. “One of our most important problems regarding the F-16s were the activities of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez against our country,” Erdogan told journalists on a flight back from Azerbaijan on Monday. His comments were widely reported across Turkish media.“Menendez’s exit gives us an advantage but the F-16 issue is not an issue that depends only on Menendez,” Erdogan added.Ankara has been seeking to buy 40 n...

Stock market today: Wall Street points lower on interest rate reality, looming US shutdown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

TOKYO — Wall Street is poised to open lower ahead of a possible U.S. government shutdown and as the realization sets in that interest rates may remain elevated for a long time. Futures for the Dow Jones industrials fell 0.4% before the opening bell Tuesday and S&P 500 are off 0.5%. With the jobs market still hot markets still boisterous, the Federal Reserve will likely keep interest rates high well into next year. The Fed is trying to ensure high inflation gets back down to its target, and it said last week it will likely cut interest rates in 2024 by less than earlier expected. Its main interest rate is at its highest level since 2001.The growing understanding that rates will stay higher for longer has pushed yields in the bond market up to their highest levels in more than a decade. That in turn makes investors less willing to pay high prices for all kinds of investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive or making their owners wait the longest for big growth.In th...

7 candidates have qualified for the second Republican presidential debate. Here’s who missed the cut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

The field for the second Republican presidential debate will be smaller than the first.Seven candidates have qualified for Wednesday night’s debate at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library in California, the Republican National Committee said, confirming that former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson did not make the cut this time.Former President Donald Trump, the early Republican presidential front-runner who skipped the first debate, will also be missing from the stage and will instead hold events in the battleground state of Michigan.To qualify for the second debate, candidates needed at least 3% support in two national polls or 3% in one national poll as well as two polls from four of the early-voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.The White House hopefuls also needed at least 50,000 unique donors, with at least 200 of those coming from 20 states or territories. They also had to sign an RNC pledge promising to support the party’s eventual nom...

RYDER CUP ’23: A glossary of golf terms in Italian for the event outside Rome

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — With the Ryder Cup being held in Italy for the first time, The Associated Press has put together a glossary of golf terms in Italian that might be heard around the Marco Simone club this week. While golf remains a niche sport in Italy and local players still borrow most of the terms from English, there are some Italian words that are widely used. Signs directing fans around the course outside Rome are written in both English and Italian:GLOSSARY (with pronouncers)Buca (BOO-kah): hole; buche (BOO-keh): holesBandiera (bahn-di-AIR-uh): flagBastone (bah-STONE-eh): clubCampo (comp-OH): courseCampo pratica (comp-OH prah-TEE-kah): driving rangeColpo (COLE-po): shotFerro (FEHR-oh): ironFlappa (FLAH-pah): fat shotGancio (GONE-choh): hook shotLegno (LANE-yo): woodPallina (pah-LEE-nah): ballSacca (SOCK-uh): bagUovo fritto (WOVE-oh free-tow): fried egg — for a ball plugged in a bunkerCHEERSForza Europa! (FORE-zuh yure-ROW-pah): Go Europe!Vai Europa! (VY yure-RO...

5 Bulgarians charged with spying for Russia appear by video in UK court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Five Bulgarians living in the U.K. who were charged with spying for Russia appeared Tuesday in court for a brief hearing. The three men and two women were accused of “conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy,” namely Russia, between August 2020 and February this year.The five are alleged to be part of a network conducting surveillance on behalf of Russia. Much of the activity took place abroad, but coordination took place in the U.K., prosecutors said. The five — Orlin Roussev, 45;, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41; Katrin Ivanova, 31; Ivan Stoyanov, 31; and Vanya Gaberova, 29 — appeared Tuesday by video at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, speaking only to confirm basic details. The suspects were arrested by the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism officers in February under the Official Secrets Act.Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Ivanova were charged in February with having false identity documents, but news about ...

Saudi delegation visits Palestinian territories as Israel and Saudi Arabia eye normalization

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

RAMALLAH (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed envoy to the Palestinian Authority visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank for the first time to present his credentials and confer with Palestinian officials Tuesday, a trip linked to U.S. efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel. The visit by Nayef al-Sudairi, who also serves as the Saudi ambassador to Jordan, is widely seen as an attempt by the kingdom to address the key sticking point in the Saudi-Israeli normalization deal: the Palestinians. The Saudi government has said it will only normalize ties with Israel if there is major progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Some 16 years after Arab leaders convened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to reaffirm the Arab Peace Initiative, pledging no peace or diplomatic recognition of Israel without a just settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinians still live under an open-ended military occupation in the West Bank and under an Israeli-Egyptian bl...

Alibaba will spin off its logistics arm Cainiao in an IPO in Hong Kong

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba said Tuesday that it would spin off its logistics arm, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, in an initial public offering in Hong Kong, making it the first business unit to go public following a major restructuring. Alibaba said in a filing that it had submitted a spin-off proposal to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and that it has received confirmation to proceed.Alibaba will continue to be a majority shareholder in Cainiao, holding over 50% of the company and retaining it as a subsidiary. The company currently owns nearly a 70% stake in Cainiao, Alibaba’s main delivery arm that handles logistics and parcels for merchants both in China and abroad.The move comes about six months after Alibaba first announced that it would split its business into six different units.Apart from its main e-commerce business, the other five business units, which include logistics and cloud computing, will be allowed to raise external capital or spun off to g...

Russian drone strikes on Odesa hit port area and cut off ferry service to Romania

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia struck the Black Sea port city of Odesa for a second night in a row in a drone barrage that damaged a warehouse, charred dozens of trucks and injured two drivers in fiery explosions that led officials to suspend ferry service between Romania and Ukraine, officials said Tuesday.Video shot from the Romanian side of the Danube River showed rapid-fire bursts of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire streaking through the night sky followed by two orange fireballs exploding near the port area. Photos showed burned-out frames of trucks.Romanian Border Police said ferries were anchored on the Romanian shores of the Danube in Isaccea due to the attacks on Ukraine. Traffic was being redirected through Galati, a Romanian town upstream on the Danube.The attacks came the day after a Russian missile and drone attack killed two people in a grain warehouse in Odesa and badly damaged an abandoned high-rise hotel.Ukraine’s air force said it downed 26 of 38 drones launched by Russia...

London’s Gatwick Airport limits flights this week due to staff illness, including COVID-19

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:37 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Gatwick Airport, London’s second-busiest, is limiting flights this week, partly because of an outbreak of COVID-19 within air traffic control.In a statement late Monday, the airport said a daily 800-flight limit, affecting both departures and arrivals, has been imposed until Sunday.Gatwick said around 30% of staff in the division within air traffic control are off sick for a variety of reasons, including COVID-19.It said the daily cap will prevent last-minute cancellations and delays for passengers while National Air Traffic Services, or NATS, gets back to normal. Stewart Wingate, the airport’s chief executive, said the decision “means we can prevent as much disruptions as possible.” The largest number of cancellations will be on Friday, Sept. 29, with 33 departures affected.NATS apologized to passengers but said that a variety of medical reasons meant it can’t manage the normal flows in and out of the airport.Though all the COVID-19 restrictions in B...