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Belgian government in crisis over fate of foreign minister in Iran visas dispute

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

BRUSSELS — Belgium risks starting another episode of its well-known political turmoil. This time, it’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib who could upset things. When Lahbib is grilled by Belgian lawmakers on Monday, some of her coalition partners hope for apologies for how she handled an Iranian delegation that attended a summit in Brussels earlier this month. If none are forthcoming, it would risk consequences beyond her own possible resignation. “Hadja Lahbib’s survival is a question of the government’s survival,” said a Belgian official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. Lahbib is under fire over the delivery of visas to 14 Iranian officials, including Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani — a regime hard-liner — to attend the Brussels Urban Summit last week. The saga has already led to the resignation of Brussels Secretary of State Pascal Smet. An earlier appearance by Lahbib in the Belgian parliament did not convi...

To reduce dependence on China, more of us need to work in factories

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and adviser at Gallos Technologies.As deglobalization and its recently born sibling, derisking, have policy wonks excited, even free-trading political leaders are concluding that Western countries need to reduce their manufacturing dependence on China by moving it home or to friendlier countries. But who’s going to work in all the factories that could now be built on Western shores?If the West is serious about friendshoring, many more will need to carry out manual work — albeit aided by robots. And yes, that means university graduates.Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented her proposal for a new economic security strategy for the European Union, which, as reported by POLITICO, promises to be “an exercise in this new economic thinking.” Now set to be discussed by the bloc’s national leaders, the strategy takes the approach that “an economic power like the EU must pay greater heed t...

Residents urged to remain vigilant after 3 elderly people found dead in apparent homicide in Newton

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

Authorities are warning Newton residents to remain vigilant and check their door and window locks after three elderly people were found killed on Sunday in an apparent triple homicide. Officers responding to a 911 call from a person known to the victims who was reporting three people believed to be the elderly residents of a home on Broadway Street around 10 a.m. found them inside suffering from apparent stab wounds and blunt force trauma, according to a statement issued by Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Newton Chief of Police John Carmichael.A preliminary investigation suggests there were signs of forced entry into the home.Investigators from the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorney’s Office and Newton Police have been actively investigating and following leads throughout the day including investigating another attempted break-in at Brookside Avenue, about a half-...

Body of missing kayaker recovered from Merrimack River in Haverhill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

Emergency crews conducting a joint search on Sunday after a man went missing while kayaking the Merrimack River in Haverhill have recovered the man’s body, officials said.The name of the man, whose body was located around 6:30 p.m., has not been released.A death investigation is now being conducted by state police detectives assigned to the Essex District Attorney’s Office, Haverhill Police and the State Police Crime Scene Services Section. This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

BET Awards host party-like tribute to hip-hop, performance honoring legends like Takeoff, Markie

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 2023 BET Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with tributes to the genre’s earliest voices, late legends, and new talent during a performance-packed show that consistently felt like a party.Sunday’s biggest surprise was a rare public performance by Quavo and Offset, the surviving members of Migos, who did a rendition of “Bad and Boujee” in front of an image of Takeoff, who died in a shooting last December. He was 28.Throughout the show, whether it was Tupac, Warren G, Notorious B.I.G., Biz Markie or Pop Smoke, performers and emcee Kid Capri paid homage to late hip-hop stars, often by quickly highlighting a taste of their best-known hits. In a show where the awards are few and far between, Capri and BET kept the emphasis on the music.Old school hip-hop heroes and modern stars mixed it up onstage, performing tracks celebrating rap’s most influential cities and innovation. For Miami, Trick Daddy and Trina rocked through “Nann” and Uncle Luke took on “I Wan...

Australia’s High Court dismisses Russia’s bid for injunction to stop its embassy’s eviction

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s highest court on Monday dismissed Russia’s application for an injunction that would have prevented Moscow’s embassy being evicted from a site in the national capital Canberra.In dismissing the application, High Court Justice Jayne Jagot described Russia’s challenge on constitutional grounds to a law terminating the lease as “weak” and “difficult to understand.”Parliament passed emergency legislation on June 15 that terminated Russia’s lease on the largely empty block on security grounds because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.Russia’s lawyer Elliot Hyde had argued that the Ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky would not have confidence in the integrity and security of a consular building already on the site if the embassy was not allowed to maintain possession until the challenge to the validity of the lease termination was decided.Elliot said a man who has been living on the site in a portable cabin at least since las...

Regulators say no sign of threat from hazardous railroad cargo that plunged into Yellowstone River

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

COLUMBUS, Mont. (AP) — Preliminary testing of water and air quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where train cars carrying hazardous materials fell into the waterway following a bridge collapse did not indicate any threat to the public, state and federal officials said Sunday. The seven mangled cars that carried hot asphalt and molten sulfur remained in the rushing river a day after the bridge gave way near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) west of Billings, Montana. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River Valley, surrounded by ranch and farmland. Preliminary results of water quality sampling did not show petroleum hydrocarbons, which would have come from the asphalt, or sulfur, Kevin Stone, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said. Both do not dissolve when they enter water, he explained.“Water quality testing will continue until the cleanup is complete and at this time there are no kn...

E. 6th St. reopens after APD bomb squad investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department's bomb squad has cleared the scene of a concerning item in downtown Austin on Sunday.APD officers initially blocked off San Jacinto Boulevard and Brazos Street between East Sixth and Seventh streets in order to investigate, "something that caused concern," APD Watch Command said.APD's bomb squad responded to East Sixth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard on Sunday. (KXAN photo/Frank Martinez)APD's bomb squad responded to East Sixth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard on Sunday. (KXAN photo/Frank Martinez)APD's bomb squad responded to East Sixth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard on Sunday. (KXAN photo/Frank Martinez)APD's bomb squad responded to East Sixth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard on Sunday. (KXAN photo/Frank Martinez)Those roads have been reopened.APD told KXAN that they were alerted to a suspicious item in a backpack that was in an alley between San Jacinto Blvd. and Brazos St. The bomb squad determined that the item was not an explosiv...

Drone finds accident victim on railroad tracks with oncoming train just two miles away

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

The use of an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, with infrared imaging capabilities helped law enforcement locate a man who had left the scene of an accident, and it very likely saved his life when authorities were able to stop a train on its way to where the man had collapsed on railroad tracks.The aircraft spotted him as he collapsed west of Sacred Heart and, because of it, the Renville County Sheriff’s Office was able to contact the Twin Cities & Western Railroad, which halted a train en route to the man’s location, and only two miles away.Juan A. Chaparro-Larsen, 37, of Granite Falls, was located by the aerial craft walking on railroad tracks about one mile west of where his vehicle had rolled over near U.S. Highway 212 and 150th Street in Renville County, or about one mile west of Sacred Heart in Hawk Creek Township, at around 5:56 a.m. Friday.The 2005 Buick Rendezvous was fully engulfed in flames as emergency responders reached the site of the rollover. After extinguishing...

Losing grandparents to COVID may be increasing youth violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

ST. LOUIS --- A health expert says the death of grandparents during COVID is contributing to the youth violence crisis, with too many kids ending up in foster care. Dr. Kendra Holmes says the pandemic is having a lasting effect on the Black community and is contributing to the current chaos."We lost a lot of grandparents, and those were caregivers providing that structure. That support and discipline that children need where many of those were lost, due to COVID-19," said Dr. Kendra Holmes, President/CEO Affinia Healthcare. "We're seeing an increase of those children in the foster care system in the foster care system." Life in Illinois gets more expensive on July 1 with multiple tax increases, new laws Even the Missouri Department of Social Service admits there's a huge problem in the foster care system saying there are, "Too many children going into foster care and remaining there too long."I also talked to Missouri Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman who is the chair of the senate h...