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Keir Starmer: UK Labour is ‘looking at’ giving EU citizens the vote

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. opposition Labour Party is “looking at” giving EU citizens the vote in general elections, leader Keir Starmer said Monday.Following a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper that suggested Labour would expand the voting franchise to around 3.4 million EU nationals — as well as to 16 and 17 year olds — Starmer confirmed his party is considering the idea.“There’s no settled policy here — we’re looking at, and this is what the papers are reflecting on, this idea of whether or not EU nationals should be able to vote in our national elections,” Starmer told an LBC phone-in program. “If someone has been here say 10, 20, 30 years, contributing to this economy, part of our community, they ought to be able to vote,” he added. “That feels wrong [that they can’t vote], and something ought to be done about it.”EU citizens who permanently reside in the U.K. and have achieved “settled status” can alrea...

Zelenskyy meets Sunak during surprise UK trip

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

LONDON — Volodymyr Zelenskyy will request “urgent support” for Ukraine during “substantive negotiations” with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on MondaySecurity is not just important for Ukraine, but for “all of Europe,” the Ukrainian president told journalists as he arrived at Chequers, Sunak’s grace-and-favor country retreat in Buckinghamshire, for a surprise visit.“We are thankful from all our hearts, from Ukrainians, from our soldiers, we are thankful,” Zelenskyy said.The U.K. visit is the latest stop in a European tour that has seen Zelenskyy meet leaders in Berlin, Rome and Paris. Downing Street confirmed ahead of the meeting it would provide hundreds of air defense missiles and further uncrewed aerial systems, including long-range attack drones, to Ukraine.The flurry of diplomatic visits comes as Kyiv attempts to shore up support among Western allies, ahead of a widely expected counteroffensive to help liberate Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine’s east. Bot...

Search to resume on Castle Island for missing 4-year-old boy

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

A massive police presence will continue its search this morning on Castle Island in South Boston for a missing 4-year-old boy who was last seen playing at a park there on Sunday.State police and other emergency responders could be seen using flashlights, boats, and a helicopter to search the area for Mohemed Fofena late into the night on Sunday.An adult who lost sight of Mohemed called police when they noticed he was missing.No additional information was immediately available.https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/1657923502618361859https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/1657919005569564674This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Crews use crane to pull vehicle out of Lowell canal

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

Emergency crews could be seen using a crane late Sunday night to pull a submerged vehicle from a canal in Lowell.The car was removed with the help of divers near the intersection of Suffolk and Broadway.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Andover crash leaves 18-year-old with life-threatening injuries

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

An 18-year-old from Methuen is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a crash on Route 93 northbound in Andover late Sunday night.Troopers responding to the crash requested a medical helicopter to transport the teen to a hospital for treatment.A preliminary investigation suggests he was driving at a high rate of speed when he slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer. No additional information was immediately available.

Lucas: Secret negotiations nothing new for John Kerry

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

Memo to U.S. Rep James Comer: John Kerry was secretly negotiating with enemies of the U.S. before you were born.So now you want to haul him before your House Oversight Committee to grill him on making secret “shady negotiations” on climate change with the communist Chinese?Good luck with that.John Kerry’s political career is coming full circle. It began around 1970 when, as a Vietnam War veteran turned anti-war activist, he met secretly in Paris with officials of the enemy Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese to discuss ending the war and the release of captured U.S. servicemen.Comer, 50, of Kentucky was born in 1972.Kerry had no authority to do so, but he did it anyway, which endeared him to Democrats and the anti-war crowd.Kerry at the time was a commissioned U.S. Navy Reserve officer and may have broken the the law by colluding with the enemy, but nothing was officially made of it.However, there were critics who later questioned his honorable discharge from the Navy.And it made no ...

Orioles reset: Adley Rutschman’s first 162 games on Baltimore’s roster show star catcher’s impact

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

Kyle Gibson acknowledges that Adley Rutschman hasn’t quite surpassed the praise he heard about the Orioles’ young catcher throughout his free agency this winter.Doing so might have been impossible.“The reputation that I heard is tough to exceed because there were only good things said about him,” the veteran right-hander said, “but I would say he’s lived up to all of those expectations of just how he is as a person, first and foremost.“You always go through ebbs and flows on the field, but he’s just the same guy all the time.”That steadiness and consistency have paid off for Baltimore. On Sunday, the Orioles played their 162nd game — the length of a typical regular season — since promoting Rutschman, the 2019 first-overall draft pick and then baseball’s No. 1 prospect, to the majors last year. They have gone 93-69 in those games.In the 162 games before Rutschman’s promotion, Baltimore was 51-111. The Oriol...

Portuguese chief vs. American deputy in race to lead UN migration agency

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — The 175 member countries of the U.N. migration agency were casting ballots on Monday to choose its leader for the next five years — an unusual contest between its European director-general and his American deputy who’s looking to oust him from the job. International Organization for Migration director-general Antonio Vitorino of Portugal was looking at a possibly tough contest against his Biden administration-backed deputy, Amy Pope.As the two candidates left a cavernous conference hall in Geneva one after the other to let member countries vote behind closed doors in their absence, Pope and Vitorino didn’t speak to each other — but she expressed confidence to a handful of reporters as she passed by. “Gonna be a great day!” she mused, tapping a journalist on the arm and replying “yes” when asked if she had enough votes to win.The Portuguese diplomatic mission in Geneva tweeted that the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, which counts nine...

Pakistan government supporters stage rare sit-in, protest release of former Premier Imran Khan

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Convoys of buses and vehicles filled with Pakistani government supporters are flooding the main road leading to the country’s capital on Monday to protest the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Thousands are making their way to the Supreme Court for a rare sit-in against its decision last week in support of Khan, following his arrest in a graft case. The 70-year-old former premier was released on bail and given protection from arrest until later this month. The call to protest is a sign of escalating tensions between the judiciary and the government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who replaced Khan after his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022.Pakistan Democratic Movement, an alliance of 13 political parties affiliated with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, had called for the sit-in. The radical Islamist political party Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam is leading the protest call.Also as part of the alliance, Pakistan People’s Party led...

Duo in Austria charged with playing Hitler speeches on train intercom

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:24:02 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Two people were charged in Austria for allegedly playing speeches by Adolf Hitler via the loudspeaker system of a train running from Bregenz to Vienna, Austrian news agency APA reported Monday.The two suspects, who were not identified, also blasted the “Heil Hitler” Nazi salute via the train’s intercom several times on Sunday. The authorities tracked them down by analyzing video from the train cameras. Spreading Nazi propaganda is a criminal offense in Austria.The two are also suspected of responsibility for two other incidents last week on trains running from St. Poelten to Vienna, in which recordings were played over the train intercom. It was not clear if those recordings also had a Nazi connotation.The suspects are believed to have opened the train conductors’ intercom cabins with a key all train employees own, and then played the recordings, APA reported.The Associated Press