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Qatar confirms Israel-Hamas truce for hostages deal, Palestinian prisoners also to be freed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Qatar has confirmed an agreement for a cease-fire and swap between Israel and Hamas, saying the start time will be announced in the next 24 hours and that it will last for four days.The statement early Wednesday morning from Qatar’s Foreign Ministry described the talks that produced the agreement as a mediation by Egypt, the U.S. and Qatar for a “humanitarian pause.”“The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension,” the statement said. “The agreement includes the release of 50 civilian women and children hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement.”It added that the cease-fire will “allow the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs.”...

Inside the ‘excruciating’ 5 weeks that led to the Israel-Hamas deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grabbed the arm of the White House’s top Middle East official as they exited a contentious meeting in Israel on Nov. 14. Talks to secure the release of 240 hostages held by Hamas militants were stalling and tensions were high.Brett McGurk turned around to find the Israeli leader looking straight back at him. “We need this deal,” Netanyahu said.A week later, the Israeli leader got what he wanted.Both the Israeli government and Hamas announced Tuesday night that they agreed to a long-anticipated deal: Hamas would release 50 women and children taken from Israel on Oct. 7.Three Americans will be among them, including a three year old girl, Abigail, whose parents the militants killed during last month’s attack. Israel will release around 150 Palestinian prisoners, women and teenagers, as fighting in the six week war pauses for four to five days. The release of every additional 10 hostages beyond the initial 50 would lead ...

Lesson from Ukraine to Gaza: Truth demands patience

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

Ross Burley is co-founder and executive director of the Centre for Information Resilience, a nonprofit exposing war crimes and countering disinformation using open source.This month, our investigators at the Centre for Information Alliance verified the 15,000th entry in the “Eyes on Russia” map — a free resource that allows anyone to track what’s going on in the war in Ukraine.And each one of these 15,000 entries represents hours, sometimes even days, of painstaking work by analysts, as they’ve been verifying and geolocating snapshots of a conflict that’s been raging since February 2022. More importantly, however, each of these entries represents a unique human story. Stories of unimaginable loss, suffering and heartbreak among Ukrainian families. Stories of soldiers stoically and courageously defending their homeland in battle, of civilians struggling to come to terms with losing their homes and family members, and communities left to observe their own destruction.  Unfor...

Dutch election is wide open as voting begins

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — As Dutch polling stations open on Wednesday, any one of four rival party leaders could yet win power. Volatile polls in the final days of the campaign have left the outcome on a knife-edge, with the big surprise a sudden surge in support for the far-right party of Geert Wilders. His anti-Islam and anti-EU Freedom Party (PVV) appears to be making a dramatic comeback — one poll put him level in first place with outgoing premier Mark Rutte’s group, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). The Labour-Green alliance, led by EU veteran Frans Timmermans, and a new party of centrist outsider Pieter Omtzigt are trailing behind in third and fourth place, according to pollster Maurice de Hond. Other polls put Timmermans’ party tied in first position with Wilders, closely followed by the VVD. However, the differences are small and, most importantly, 63 percent of voters had not yet settled on their final choice one day ahead of the election, accord...

Rishi Sunak hits the tax cut button as his luck runs out

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak was once the golden child of British politics. These days, nothing seems to be going his way. A series of big moments intended to pump up the ailing prime minister since the summer have fallen flat — significantly raising the stakes for Wednesday’s Autumn Statement, a major government fiscal event that looks set to put tax cuts front and center.One by one, the Conservative Party leader has been running out of levers to pull in recent months.A party conference speech came and went, framed around correctives to overbearing climate policy and profligate high-speed rail spending. That was meant to paint Sunak as the “change” candidate — a tough sell after 13 years of Tory rule.The King’s Speech, seen as Sunak’s final big chance to renew his government’s legislative program before an expected election next year, was viewed in Westminster as relatively thin gruel.Last week’s government reshuffle — which saw the dramatic return of former Prime Mi...

Carbon capture and storage to reach net zero 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Google Play EN_Google_Podcasts_Badge Created with Sketch. Acast Amazon Music Oil, gas and coal still made up 81.5 percent of the global energy mix in 2022 — down just 3 percent from 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was signed. Given the slow pace of the energy transition, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has the potential to become an impo...

Belgium’s on-again, off-again hunt for the men accused of corrupting the European Parliament

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

BRUSSELS — Should the key figures accused of corrupting the European Parliament be arrested or not?That’s the question at the heart of the scandal known as Qatargate — the most serious corruption allegations to hit European Union institutions in decades. In a sprawling Belgian police and intelligence investigation, major diplomatic and government figures have been accused of funneling payments to members of the European Parliament in exchange for influencing decisions in favor of Qatar and Morocco.In January, Belgian authorities issued a national notification for the arrest of Qatari Labor Minister Ali Bin Samikh Al Marri, his aide Bettahar Boudjellal and Morocco’s ambassador to Poland, Abderrahim Atmoun, according to Belgian police reports seen by POLITICO.Later that month, Michel Claise, then the lead investigative judge in the case, ordered the notifications for arrest to be rescinded.At a later date, new notifications for the arrest were issued for the two representatives o...

US has sent Israel data on aid group locations to try to prevent strikes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

The Biden administration has been providing Israel with the location of humanitarian groups in Gaza for weeks to prevent strikes against their facilities. But Israel has continued to hit such sites.The information included GPS coordinates of a number of medical facilities and information on movements of aid groups in Gaza to the Israeli government for at least a month, according to three people familiar with the communications. All were granted anonymity because they feared speaking publicly would make it more difficult for aid groups to operate in Gaza.Still, Israel has launched operations against Hamas in or near aid sites, including hospitals, leading to the destruction of buildings and the blocking of fuel and other critical supplies.It’s unclear if the U.S. has compiled a formal “no-strike” list or if it is providing one-off guidance. But officials have helped transmit coordinates of groups that provide food and medical care in Gaza and operate out of hospitals, smaller offices...

Storm brings mix of rain and snow to New England ahead of Thanksgiving

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

A storm moving across the region overnight is expected to bring a mix of rain and snow to New England, potentially having an impact on holiday travel Wednesday morning ahead of Thanksgiving. Snow is expected to give way to rain even in higher elevations in Worcester County by Wednesday morning. Even so, preparations were underway in communities including Leominster Tuesday. “We’re prepping some trucks up in case we have to go out,” said Leominster Department of Public Works Dispatcher Luke Beaulac. Snow flakes were beginning to fly in western Massachusetts around 9 p.m. while rain moved in elsewhere. By 10 p.m., snow was creeping into some spots further east including Shrewsbury and Leominster.Rain and snow is expected to continue falling through the overnight hours before the rain/snow line pushes fully into New Hampshire near midnight. Rain and wind in coastal communities is then expected to persist through the morning and eventually taper off near 12 p.m. Snowfall ...

Driver to face charges in connection with crash into gas station in Carver

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:50 GMT

A driver is expected to face charges in connection with a crash into a gas station in Carver Tuesday, police said. Carver Police Chief Marc Duphily in a statement said the crash happened at the Nouria gas station on Tremont Street Tuesday afternoon.Officers responded to the scene around 2:30 p.m. and found a roughly six-foot hole in the back of the station’s wall, according to Duphily. The driver, Duphily said, had fled the scene. Duphily said a state police trooper was at the gas station at the time of the crash and followed the driver down the street. The driver was taken to a hospital with unspecified injuries and is expected to be summonsed to court to face charges including operating under the influence and leaving the scene of a property damage accident, according to Duphily. Duphily said additional charges are likely.While the driver was injured, there were no other reported injuries.