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2 shot dead in Brussels ‘terrorist attack’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

A shooter killed two people near the center of Brussels on Monday evening, in what Belgium’s foreign minister has condemned as a “terrorist attack.”Police said gunshots were fired near Place Sainctelette and Boulevard du Neuvième de Ligne shortly after 7 p.m. and patrols were immediately dispatched to the scene.Two people were confirmed dead, said Brussels police spokesperson Ilse Van de Keere, but more details were not immediately available. “The investigation is ongoing,” she said.Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said: “My deepest condolences to the relatives of this cowardly attack in Brussels. We are monitoring the situation and ask the people of Brussels to be vigilant.”He added that he had passed on his condolences to Sweden’s prime minister “following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens.” Sweden is playing Belgium in an international football match at the national stadium in northern Brussels. Belgia...

Clashes at Lebanon-Israel border raise fears of wider war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

Southern Lebanon (CNN) — On the face of it, the crossfire on Lebanon’s border with Israel appears marginal, dwarfed by the scale and intensity of the Hamas-Israel war further south.The fighting has stayed within a roughly 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) radius of either side of the demarcation line, with at least 13 people killed since last Saturday.Yet this barely populated swathe of mountainous terrain could be the launching pad of a regional war, drawing in a myriad of actors, including Iran and the United States.Hezbollah – an Iran-backed armed group that is also a regional force in its own right – dominates south Lebanon. It also operates alongside Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, where the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights separates Israel from Tehran-aligned fighters.Iran’s Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian on Monday raised the specter of expanded fighting after talking to counterparts in Tunisia, Malaysia and Pakistan.“Underlined the need to immediate...

CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid are closing thousands of stores. Here’s why

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

New York (CNN) — Drug store chains for decades saturated US cities, suburbs and small towns with new stores.Now, they are closing thousands of stores, leaving gaps in communities for medicines and essentials. Researchers find pharmacy closures lead to health risks such as older adults failing to take medication.Rite Aid, the third largest standalone pharmacy chain, filed for bankruptcy Sunday and will reportedly close roughly 400 to 500 of its approximately 2,200 stores.Rite Aid was undone by competition from larger rivals, its $3.3 billion debt load, and expensive legal battles for its alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis.It comes amid walkouts by Walgreens pharmacists and technicians around the country and at CVS stores in Kansas City over low pay and understaffed stores.Drug store strugglesRite Aid’s bankruptcy reflects long-term struggles in the retail pharmacy industry.The majority of drug stores’ sales comes from filling prescriptio...

These are the cities where hotel rates are rising fastest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

Lebawit Lily Girma | (TNS) Bloomberg NewsHotel room rates in major cities from Boston to Mumbai are expected to jump by double digits, even after predictions that prices were finally hitting a ceiling, according to a new report.Buenos Aires takes this year’s crown, with rates that are set to jump by 17% year over year, according to the Hotel Monitor 2024 report from American Express Global Business Travel. It examines how hotel prices are fluctuating in more than 80 cities around the world, with forecasts based on criteria such as currently listed prices, broader macroeconomic trends, hotel pipelines and historic data.Hotel prices reflect much more than a destination’s current popularity with travelers. In the Argentina capital, rates are largely being driven by the country’s ongoing hyperinflation crisis, which in September reached its worst levels since 1991. (Notably, the Amex study calculates rate hikes in the local currency.) In other words, the rising prices in Buenos Aires ar...

Proud Boys member pleads guilty to obstruction charge in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — A Proud Boys member who joined others from the far-right group in attacking the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty on Monday to obstructing the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.William Chrestman, 49, of Kansas, also pleaded guilty to threatening to assault a federal officer during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2023.U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly is scheduled to sentence Chrestman for his two felony convictions on Jan. 12. Estimated sentencing guidelines for his case recommended a prison term ranging from four years and three months to five years and three months.Chrestman brought an axe handle, gas mask, helmet and other tactical gear when he traveled to Washington, D.C., with other Proud Boys members from the Kansas City, Kansas, area, On Jan. 6, he marched to the Capitol grounds with dozens of other Proud Boys leaders, members and associates.Chrestman and other Proud Boys moved pas...

Ayanna Pressley joins Squad members in calling for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Israel and Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

A week after U.S. Sen. Ed Markey was booed for his de-escalation remarks, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley has joined her fellow Squad members in calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Israel and Gaza following the Hamas terrorist attacks and deadly fallout.Pressley on Monday signed on to a progressive Congressional resolution that urges the President Biden administration to support an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. Hamas is still holding nearly 200 hostages in Gaza, according to the Israeli military.The Boston congresswoman joined Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman and other members of Congress in backing the “Ceasefire Now Resolution.” Thirteen representatives are named in the resolution.“The loss of every Palestinian, Israeli, and American life we have seen in the past week is absolutely devastating and the grief and trauma in our communities is palpable,” Pressley...

IRS postpones tax filing deadline one month for California storm victims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

The IRS announced on Monday that it has postponed the tax filing and tax payment deadline by one more month for most Californians, due to the winter storms that occurred at the start of the year. The postponement comes after the deadlines had already been postponed by six months, from mid-April to Oct. 16, due to several disaster declarations over several months. 4.7M earthquake shakes California’s north coast As of noon, the state Franchise Tax Board had not announced if it would grant storm victims another month to file their state tax return, but the agency's website says that the state "generally follows the IRS extended deadlines to file and pay taxes," and that "Impacted taxpayers may also be eligible to claim a disaster loss on their tax return."The IRS' new deadline of Nov. 16 gives residents of 55 of California's 58 counties four extra weeks to complete their tax return for 2022. Only Lassen, Modoc and Shasta counties, in the far north, do not qualify for the postponemen...

Female migrant dies after crossing the border in California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) -- Migrant advocates took a short break from handing out bottles of water and small meals to migrants stranded between two border walls in San Ysidro, California, to build a small "Día de los Muertos" altar in honor of a female migrant who died early Wednesday morning.The woman reportedly died after being taken from an area known as "Whiskey 4," about a mile west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry according to Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee.He says the woman had been waiting for agents to take her to a processing center when she developed some sort of medical emergency."There isn’t a lot of information except that she was 29 years old from Guinea, that she was traveling with a cousin and another companion," said Rios. 2 migrants die in US hospitals after falling in desert areas near border Rios stated that, while not much is known about the woman herself, details about her death are few.Pedro Rios is the director of the Americ...

Trump nabs new endorsement as his Iowa campaign ramps up after second-place finish in 2016

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

ADEL, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday rallied caucus-goers in Iowa’s rural Dallas County, where he received the endorsement of the state’s attorney general and predicted a landslide victory three months before voting begins in the GOP contest’s kickoff state.“Ninety-one days. Are you ready?” Trump asked more than 1,000 supporters packed into a livestock expo barn at the Dallas County fairgrounds in Adel. “We’re going to have a historic landslide,” Trump predicted, he he stood flanked by giant bales of hay.Trump, the early GOP front-runner, has stepped up his caucus campaigning this fall as his team tries to lock in support to not only avoid a repeat of his 2016 second-place finish but to win an overwhelming victory that would deny momentum to whoever finishes in second place.Brenna Bird, Iowa’s Republican attorney general, served previously as former Iowa Rep. Steve King’s chief of staff and last year beat Democrat Tom Miller for the state...

Jewish students plaster Paris walls with photos of French citizens believed held hostage by Hamas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:21 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France’s main Jewish students union has plastered walls around Paris with posters bearing the faces of French citizens believed to be held hostage by Hamas in their war with Israel. The word “Kidnapped” is inscribed on a red banner at the top of each photograph.Very little is known about the hostages locked away in the Gaza Strip or whether some of those captured during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel have been killed in the Jewish state’s brutal counter-offensive. An Israeli military spokesman on Monday upped the number of hostages to 199, but did not specify whether that number includes foreigners.Some households in France, which has the largest Jewish population in western Europe, have taken a direct hit from the Israel-Hamas war. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Sunday during a visit to Israel that 19 French citizens are known to have been killed and 13 others are missing.The students’ action in Paris follows a similar campaign by Jews...