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Top Western officials rush to Middle East in effort to stop Israel-Hamas war from spreading

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

Top U.S. and European officials scrambled to the Middle East on Friday to try to stop the Israel-Hamas war from spreading, amid mounting fears Israel is gearing up for a massive land assault on Gaza by calling for the evacuation of over 1 million people.As Israel pummels the Gaza Strip and the civilian death toll there climbs past 1,500, according to the Gazan health ministry, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have urged Israeli forces to show restraint in their war against Hamas’ Islamist militants.Some European officials have gone further, with top EU diplomat Josep Borrell saying Israel had broken international law by cutting off food and water from the Gaza Strip, and criticizing the order to evacuate civilians from the blockaded area as “unrealistic.”Any order of evacuation for civilians “must be realistic and this is utterly unrealistic to leave in 24 hours,” Borrell told journalists in Beijing. Israeli of...

Ground invasion of Gaza ‘imminent,’ Israeli officials say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza is “imminent,” two Israeli officials said Friday, confirming that the much-anticipated operation will happen in the coming hours or days.Such an maneuver has been expected ever since Hamas barbarically attacked Israel last week, killing around 1,300 people and taking 150 hostages, some of them Americans. Israel responded by pummeling the Hamas controlled enclave of Gaza with 6,000 airstrikes in six days and a siege, killing roughly 1,800 Palestinians in retaliation.But officials in Jerusalem and the Israel Defense Forces never confirmed that a ground invasion was in the works, even as Israel called up 300,000 reservists and, Friday, ordered the evacuation of 1.1 million people from northern Gaza.The Israeli officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said the evacuation order was issued to save as many Palestinian lives as possible ahead of the ground operation. The short window of time for that evac...

Israel’s Gaza evacuation order will change EU minds, Palestinian envoy says 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

BRUSSELS — Israel’s order to more than 1 million Palestinians living in the north of Gaza to immediately evacuate their homes will turn Europeans against the war, the Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat in Brussels predicted on Friday.On Friday, the Israeli army ordered Palestinians to evacuate Gaza City — a move condemned by the United Nations as foreshadowing a humanitarian tragedy. “It’s going to — and I hope so — change the minds of several EU leaders and the minds of all the people in all the European member states,” said Abdalrahim Alfarra, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg.“It’s really a catastrophe that no one could have imagined,” he said by telephone. “It’s not acceptable and that’s why I demand the European Union to very quickly intervene to stop the forced transfers from northern Gaza to the south,” he said over the phone.Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola, respectively the presidents of the European executive and...

War in Israel imperils Europe’s fragile economic recovery

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

MARRAKECH, Morocco — Europe’s economy is bracing itself for the ripple effects of an escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas that could tear apart a sense that things were beginning to look more positive 20 months on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.With expectations of a ground assault by Israeli troops on Gaza after Hamas militants killed at least 1,300 people in Israel last weekend, governments around the world are fearing the knock-on effect of wider Middle East violence so soon after the economic turmoil wrought by the COVID pandemic and Moscow’s aggression.“The world economy has entered troubled times because geopolitical tensions are the real economic risk,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters in Marrakech on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s and World Bank’s annual gathering.“Any escalation in the region would have, of course, significant impact on global growth and on global prosperity,” he said.Since the shock of the Kre...

What is a credit card hardship program?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

Erik J. Martin | Bankrate.com (TNS)Finding it increasingly difficult to pay your credit card bills due to some bad luck? Have you overcharged beyond your ability to repay your debt? Worried that your credit rating may be severely damaged if you don’t do something soon?Thankfully, there are options. One of them is to participate in a credit card hardship program, which is a structured offering designed to assist consumers facing personal and financial adversity and help them avoid defaulting on their credit cards.Read on to learn about how credit card hardship programs work, their eligibility requirements, the advantages and disadvantages of participating, the steps involved in the process and alternative options to consider.Credit card hardship programs explainedA credit card hardship program is a financial arrangement offered by credit card-issuing banks and lenders through which you negotiate to make smaller or more manageable payments on your outstanding debt.Often, through these...

Finance nerds share tips for managing holiday budgets and stress

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

By Elizabeth Ayoola | NerdWalletHolidays are meant to be full of love, but sometimes they’re full of stress and anxiety. One of the culprits can be the unspoken financial commitment of family dinners, travel and chaotic gift-buying. Sometimes the stress is beyond your control, but there are some things you can champion like planning and budgeting.We asked a few of our Nerds to write down their best strategies for managing holiday stress and spending. Here are their responses.Set a gift budgetIf money wasn’t a thing, we could buy our loved ones anything they want or need. But money is a factor, so it’s ideal to work within a budget, which means having a limit for how much you spend on gifts. You can also take it a step further by agreeing on a spending cap with your loved ones, something senior copy editor Jim McNett does.“The small circle of people I exchange gifts with have a quiet understanding to keep gifts under about $100,” he said.Give secondhand giftsIt can feel taboo t...

7 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ double OT preseason win, including the Big 3′s big minutes and Julian Phillips’ poster dunk

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

Chicago Bulls fans saw a rare preseason treat in their return to the United Center on Thursday — double overtime in a preseason game. The Bulls fended off a comeback by the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets in a 133-124 finish.Both overtime periods featured a cast of young bench players helmed by second-year guard Dalen Terry, but the entire game gave a glimpse at the blueprint for the lineups and offensive schemes the Bulls will bring into the regular season.Here are seven takeaways from the game.1. Coby White maintains his place in starting lineup.Coby White started his second preseason game at point guard as he continues to emerge as the frontrunner for the position, finishing with eight points and four assists.Ayo Dosunmu replaced White to begin the second half, but Jevon Carter was not rotated in as coach Billy Donovan continues to weigh different lineups.“The biggest thing with Jevon is getting him comfortable,” Donovan said. “He’s a guy t...

An employee at the Israeli Embassy in China has been stabbed. A foreign suspect is detained

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A 50-year-old Israeli man who works at the Israeli Embassy in Beijing was stabbed Friday in front of a supermarket, Chinese police and the Israeli government said.Beijing police said they had arrested a suspect, a 53-year-old foreign man. They described the victim as a family member of an Israeli diplomat. No motive was given for the attack, and it was unclear if it was connected to the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas.“The employee was transferred to hospital and he is in a stable condition,” an Israeli government statement said, without giving additional details.A video posted on social media showed a man with a knife grappling with another man on the ground and stabbing him several times, leaving a trail of blood stains on the sidewalk.People working in the area said they heard the victim shouting as police cars and an ambulance arrived. A police cordon was set up and the blood later washed away. The stabbing occurred as Muslims across the world took...

CP NewsAlert: Surrey, B.C., to ask court to review provincial order on police

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

SURREY, B.C. — The City of Surrey says it will file a petition with the Supreme Court of British Columbia for a judicial review of the provincial government’s order that forces it to transition to a municipal police force.The city was in the process of reverting to the RCMP when the provincial government ordered it to resume the shift to the Surrey Police Service. More coming. The Canadian Press

Nun, 97, at former Ontario residential school charged in sex assault case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:18:13 GMT

A 97-year-old nun has been arrested and charged in a sexual assault case involving allegations dating back decades to an infamous residential school in northern Ontario. Ontario Provincial Police said Francoise Seguin of Ottawa was arrested this week after an individual contacted them in late 2022 about the alleged incidents.The incidents are alleged to have taken place in the 1960s and 70s at St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany First Nation and Bishop Belleau school in Moosonee, Ont., as well as a detention facility in Sudbury, Ont., said OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson.“The case involved one victim,” said Dickson, noting the individual was a “young person” at the time of the alleged incidents. “We are not aware of any others but cannot speculate.”Survivors have spoken out for decadesSt. Anne’s operated in Fort Albany until 1967 and survivors have said children at the school were sexually abused, punished with shocks deliv...