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Italy mulls new migrant crackdown as talk turns to naval blockade to prevent launching of boats

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

ROME (AP) — The Italian Cabinet met Monday to adopt new measures to crack down on migration after the southern island of Lampedusa was again overwhelmed by a wave of arrivals from Tunisia and the migration issue returned to center stage in Europe with talk of a naval blockade.Premier Giorgia Meloni has said the Cabinet measures will focus on migrants who don’t qualify for asylum and are slated to be repatriated to their home countries. The plan is to extend the amount of time such people can be detained to the EU maximum of 18 months and increase the number of detention centers to hold them until they are sent back, since the capacity in Italy has always been insufficient.Meloni announced the “extraordinary measures” after Lampedusa, which is closer to Tunisia than the Italian mainland, was overwhelmed last week by nearly 7,000 migrants in a day, more than the island’s resident population. Italy has been offloading them slowly by ferry to Sicily and other ports, but the arrivals onc...

A Black student is suspended twice for his hairstyle. The school says it isn’t discrimination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

MONT BELVIEU, Tex. (AP) — After serving an in-school suspension over his hairstyle, a Black high school student in Texas immediately received the same punishment when he arrived at school Monday wearing his hair as before in twisted dreadlocks tied on top of his head, his mother said. Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, was initially suspended the same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles. School officials said his dreadlocks violated the district’s dress code because his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes. George, 17, served the first suspension last week at the Houston-area school. He was in tears when he was sent back to in-school suspension Monday, his mother Darresha George said. “He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle. That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool,” she said. The incident recalls debates over hair discrimina...

Planned Parenthood resumes offering abortions in Wisconsin after more than a year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Planned Parenthood resumed offering abortion services in Wisconsin on Monday after halting them for more than a year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.Providers across the state stopped offering abortions following the June 2022 decision, fearing enforcement of an 1849 state law that appears to ban the procedure but had previously been nullified by the 1973 Roe ruling. A judge ruled last month that the 144-year-old law actually didn’t apply to medical abortions.In light of the ruling, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin was again offering abortions at clinics in Madison and Milwaukee on Monday.The lawsuit challenging the 1849 law was brought by Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general and is expected to end up in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which flipped to liberal control last month.Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers, praised the resumption of abortion services. Meanwhile, anti-abortion rights groups in the state condemned t...

9 teenage boys who escaped from a detention center in Pennsylvania are in custody, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

MORGANTOWN, Pa (AP) — Nine teenagers who escaped from a detention center in Pennsylvania after overpowering staff and crawling under a fence were captured less than 12 hours later, state police said Monday.All will be charged with escape and some may face other charges.“It probably was planned, but poorly planned,” said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David Beohm.Beohm said the first four were taken into custody shortly before 6 a.m. after they went to a residence and knocked on the door. They turned themselves in because they were cold and tired, Beohm said. The other five were captured after police received a report of a stolen truck and “a sort of pursuit” took place, Beohm said. Four youths were taken into custody from the vehicle and a fifth, who took off on foot, was caught in a field a short time later.State and local police were called late Sunday to take control of the juvenile center in Morgantown, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia. Beohm said the ...

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer says he’ll seek closer ties with the EU if he wins the next election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British opposition leader Keir Starmer says he will seek a closer relationship with the European Union, but won’t reverse Brexit, if his Labour Party wins a national election that’s due by the end of next year.Opinion polls put the left-of-center party as much as 20 points ahead of the governing Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010.Starmer told the Financial Times in an interview that the U.K.-EU trade and cooperation agreement negotiated by the Conservatives is “far too thin.”“We will attempt to get a much better deal for the U.K.,” he said, adding that the two sides “can have a closer trading relationship as well.”Britain’s departure from the EU in 2020 remains a divisive political issue. Starmer campaigned to remain in the bloc during the 2016 referendum campaign that was won narrowly by the “leave” side.Since becoming Labour leader in 2020 he has confirmed that the party will not seek to rejoin the 27-nation EU or try to re-enter the bloc’s single marke...

Ottawa looks to understand why grocery prices are so high

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

The fall session of parliament is underway, and with a big focus on making the lives of Canadians more affordable, Ottawa is starting with grocery prices.The CEOs of Canada’s biggest chains are in the nation’s capital as ministers try to nail down why prices are still so high, despite the rate of food inflation slowing in recent months.What everyone wants to know is when will prices actually drop.“We have no timeline from the federal government of when we’ll actually see prices go down,” CityNews’s Parliament Hill Reporter Cormac Mac Sweeney said. This meeting comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered chains a Thanksgiving threat — come up with a new price plan or face the consequences, which could potentially include taxing the profits of the big chains.Mac Sweeney says if the federal government does that, it could backfire.“In the end, it’s not going to help prices. You can tax the companies more but...

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts ahead of Fed meeting as oil prices keep rising

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting Monday, while oil prices keep rising to raise the pressure on inflation.The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in early trading, coming off its second straight losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22 points, or 0.1%, at 34,640, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.Stocks have been see-sawing since early August on uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve is finally done with its drastic hikes to interest rates. Higher rates have helped cool inflation from its peak last summer, but they also hurt prices for stocks and other investments while slowing the economy.Traders almost universally expect the Fed to keep rates steady at its meeting this week, which ends Wednesday. More attention will be on the forecasts Fed officials will publish about where they expect interest rates, the economy and the job market to head in upcoming years.One of the first the market will fixate on is how high officials at th...

Marilyn Manson pleads no contest to blowing nose on videographer, gets fine, community service

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — Marilyn Manson was sentenced to 20 hours of community service and a fine on Monday after pleading no contest to blowing his nose on a videographer at a 2019 concert in New Hampshire. The shock rocker, 54, wanted to appear via video for his hearing on the misdemeanor charge, but the judge required him to be in the courtroom in Laconia, about 30 miles north of Concord, the state capital. Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault stemming from the encounter with the videographer at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford on Aug. 19, 2019. Manson pleaded no contest to just the nose-blowing charge in a fully negotiated plea agreement with prosecutors. The prosecutors agreed to dismiss the other charge, which alleged that he spit on the videographer. A no contest plea means Manson is not contesting the charge and does not admit guilt. Manson was fined a little more than $1,400 as part of the deal, with $2...

Two teen girls charged following stabbing in Vaughan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

York police have charged two 13- year-old girls with assault with a weapon and are seeking witnesses after another 13-year-old girl was stabbed numerous times in a plaza parking lot in Vaughan.On Sept. 16 at approximately 8:00 p.m., police responded to a call for a large gathering of youths causing a disturbance at a fast food restaurant on Rutherford Road, east of Highway 400.A fight broke out in the parking lot and a 13-year-old girl was stabbed. Officers located her suffering from multiple injuries and she was transported to hospital in non-life-threatening condition.Officers also located two 13-year-old female suspects and took them into custody. A knife was recovered at the scene.The two 13-year-old girls, one from the Richmond Hill and one from Vaughan, have each been charged with assault with a weapon. They cannot be identified due to the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.The girl from Richmond Hill was held for a bail hearing. The girl from Vaughan was released fr...

Chicago man charged after woman shot in Lower West Side home: CPD

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:00 GMT

CHICAGO -- A Chicago man is facing a felony after a woman was shot inside a Lower West Side home Sunday evening, police said. According to police, 45-year-old Kiel Stock is facing a felony charge of aggravated battery and discharge of firearm. 4 people, including 2 children, found fatally shot in Romeoville Police said Stock was identified as the man who discharged a firearm inside a residence in the 1400 block of West 21st Street, striking a 37-year-old woman causing her minor injuries. Stock was placed into custody and charged accordingly.