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Violinist on Russian trains soothes weary commuters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The commuter trains that take wearied workers out of Moscow every day can be difficult — a long and slow trip in close quarters with strangers, some of them drinking alcohol or sprawled sleeping across the seats. But a few days a week, riders might get a lift when Oksana comes aboard to soothe them with her violin artistry. Classics, jazz, Russian folk music and children’s songs all flow as she glides her bow across the strings.It’s not just her repertoire that raises the passengers’ spirits, but her instruments themselves. She makes her own violins from kits and decorates them with intricate, colorful paintings of flowers and winding vines.The 49-year-old Oksana, who did not want her surname reported out of safety concerns, once worked at a cultural center in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don but moved to Moscow after she lost that job. There was a house loan to pay off along with support for her two children, who live with their father. At first sh...

Detienen al sospechoso del segundo tiroteo masivo en Serbia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

(CNN) –– Al menos ocho personas murieron y otras 13 resultaron heridas en un tiroteo en el municipio de Mladenovac en Serbia, confirmó a CNN el portavoz del Ministerio del Interior del país.El sospechoso, un joven de 21 años identificado como Uros B., fue detenido, según informó este viernes a CNN el portavoz del Ministerio del Interior de Serbia. La captura se produjo la mañana de este viernes en el pueblo de Kragujevac, a 60 kilómetros del municipio de Mladenovac donde ocurrieron los tiroteos, informó la radiotelevisión pública RTS.El tiroteo ocurrió en la noche del jueves, a las 11:00 p.m. hora local, dijo el portavoz del Ministerio del Interior de Serbia. El atacante disparó primero a un grupo de personas con un arma automática en el pueblo rural de Dubona, a unos 60 kilómetros de Belgrado, antes de disparar a otras personas en los pueblos de Mali Orašje y Šepšin, según informó el canal N1, afiliado de CNN.Las tres localidades se encuentran en el municipio serbio de Mladenovac.T...

Biden nombrará a general de la Fuerza Aérea como próximo jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto de EE.UU.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

(CNN) — Se espera que el presidente Joe Biden nombre al general Charles Q. Brown Jr., jefe de las Fuerzas Aéreas, como su elección para el próximo general de más alto rango de EE.UU., según una fuente familiarizada con el asunto.Si el Senado lo aprueba, sería la primera vez en la historia de Estados Unidos que el secretario de Defensa y el presidente del Estado Mayor Conjunto son afroamericanos, un hito notable para una administración que se ha enorgullecido de la diversidad de sus dirigentes.Brown sucedería al general Mark Milley, nominado por el expresidente Donald Trump en 2018. Sería solo el segundo hombre negro en convertirse en jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto, después de que el general Colin Powell ocupara el cargo entre 1989 y 1993 bajo los presidentes George H.W. Bush y Bill Clinton.El anuncio está previsto para antes de julio, según un segundo funcionario estadounidense, aunque el momento exacto no está claro.Alto general de EE.UU. dice a CNN que el “orden de seg...

Rishi Sunak is failing his first major electoral test

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

LONDON — The Conservative Party suffered a heavy night of losses in Rishi Sunak’s first major electoral test since he became prime minister in October.Voters went to the polls on Thursday to elect local representatives in 230 councils across England. In results counted overnight, Labour gained control of some of its top target councils including Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent and seized Medway council from the Tories after 20 years. The Conservatives lost control of 10 councils and more than 200 council seats, leading to forecasts they are now on track to lose up to 1,000 seats — at the worst end of independent expectations.The Liberal Democrats took control of Windsor and Maidenhead council, in former Prime Minister Theresa May’s constituency, for the first time in 16 years. Many seats are still to be counted through Friday, but the earliest results make for grim reading in Conservative headquarters.Local election results are always an imperfect indicator. Thursday’s vote only t...

Italy’s FM Tajani to France: Say sorry for ‘gratuitous insults’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

The war of words between Rome and Paris is heating up.Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday said there are “no excuses” for French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin’s criticism of Italy’s migration policy on Thursday. Tajani canceled a planned visit to Paris over the remarks.“This attack leaves one dumbfounded. It’s a clap of thunder in a quiet sky, an outpouring of gratuitous insults,” Tajani told Corriere della Sera in an interview.Darmanin “offended all Italians, in addition to the government and the prime minister,” Tajani said, adding the comments were “a stab in the back from a prominent member of the French government.”The Italian foreign minister called off a working dinner with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna on Thursday — just a few hours before their scheduled meeting in Paris.Earlier on Thursday, Darmanin told RMC radio that the “far-right” Italian government led by Prime Minister...

Parliament’s Qatargate debate: Build a wall or look inside

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

The European Parliament panel that is charged with responding to the Qatargate bribery scandal is divided over whether the real threat comes from without — or within.This split was laid bare Thursday as lawmakers, rushing to show they’re taking the scandal seriously ahead of next year’s European elections, held a debate on a report regarding the Parliament’s response to allegations of a cash-for-favors scheme involving current and former EU parliamentarians, on behalf of interests from Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania.The scandal, which has come to be known as Qatargate, was just one clear example of the need to shore up the Parliament’s “security culture,” said Slovak MEP Vladimír Bilčík, one of the file’s principal authors and a member of the center-right European People’s Party. He and French MEP Nathalie Loiseau, of the centrist Renew group, drafted a measure that sought to protect the democratically elected institution from potentially nefarious non-EU influence, while o...

The power behind the throne

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

In modern Britain, the monarchy still shapes how the country is run.By Tim RossIllustration by Tim O’BrienLONDON — Queen Elizabeth II saw it all coming.  After seven decades as the United Kingdom’s head of state, her majesty knew better than perhaps anyone else the qualities that make for a good prime minister. Boris Johnson, she seemed to have decided, didn’t have them. “It was such a remarkable event, to witness the eye roll of Queen Elizabeth II,” recalled Andrew Gwynne, a British member of parliament.  In June 2019, as Brexit battles paralyzed parliament, the ruling Conservative Party was in the frenzied process of choosing a new leader to succeed Theresa May as prime minister. Gwynne, an opposition Labour MP, was among the guests at a reception for faith leaders among the gilt-framed portraits and chandeliers in Buckingham Palace. During a private chat between the queen and a handful of MPs, the question came up of who would take charge of the country. ...

Gunman kills 8 in Serbia’s second mass shooting in 2 days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A gunman killed eight people and wounded 14 in three Serbian villages, authorities and media reported, shaking a nation still in the throes of grief over a mass shooting a day earlier. Police arrested a suspect Friday after an all-night manhunt.The second shooting came Thursday, a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns to kill eight fellow students and a guard at a school in Belgrade, the capital.The bloodshed sent shockwaves through a Balkan nation scarred by wars, but unused to mass murders. Though Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, Wednesday’s shooting was the first at a school in the country’s modern history.The last mass shooting before this week was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.Late Thursday, an attacker shot at people in three villages near Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, according to state broadcaster RTS.“I heard some tak-tak-tak s...

Strong earthquake hits Japan; possible casualties and damage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Authorities were looking into possible casualties and damage after a strong earthquake hit Friday afternoon near central Japan, but there were no reports of a tsunami threat.Government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that authorities were checking into possible casualties, putting human life first. There was a report of buildings being damaged, but details were still being confirmed, he said.The 6.2 quake struck Ishikawa prefecture at 2:42 p.m. near the central west coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s earthquake information center. The Japan Meteorological Agency put the preliminary magnitude at 6.3, but later raised it to 6.5. They measured the depth at about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles). The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said two people were reported hurt in Ishikawa’s Suzu City, on the northern tip of the Noto Peninsula: One person was found without vital signs after falling from a ladder,...

Adidas breakup with rapper Ye, lost Yeezy sales hit earnings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:39 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Adidas saw operating earnings dwindle in the first three months of the year as the German sportswear company’s breakup with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West and his popular Yeezy shoe brand cost it 400 million euros ($441 million) in lost sales. Profit was down to 60 million euros from 437 million euros in the same quarter a year ago, while profit margin shrank to a bare 1.1%. Net sales declined 1%, to 5.27 billion euros, and would have risen 9% with the Yeezy line, the company said Friday.Losing the Yeezy brand is “of course hurting us,” new CEO Bjorn Gulden said in a statement, which didn’t explain what Adidas would do with 1.2 billion euros worth of unsold Yeezy shoes after the company cut ties with the rapper now known as Ye in October.The breakup, which followed Ye’s antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews, will reduce earnings by 500 million euros in the coming year, the Herzogenaurach-based company has said. Gu...