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UK’s own climate adviser brands government ‘hypocrites’ over North Sea oil and gas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. would undermine its international reputation as a climate leader if it goes ahead with a major new oil and gas field, the outgoing chair of the country’s official climate advisory committee said.John Gummer, the Conservative peer who chairs the U.K.’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), told POLITICO that the British government’s current stance in favor of expanding production of fossil fuels in the North Sea meant the U.K. had “perfectly properly been called hypocrites.”The committee advises parliament on progress on emissions targets and was designed as an independent check on the U.K.’s progress.A government decision is expected within weeks giving the go-ahead to start drilling in the biggest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea, Rosebank. A green light for Rosebank is likely to prove highly controversial at a time when the future of U.K. oil and gas production in the North Sea has become a major dividing line between the government and the opposition Lab...

POLITICO Pro Central Banker: Fed holds — ECB poised — BoE pressured

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news.View in your browser or listen to audioBy GEOFFREY SMITHwith CARLO BOFFA, JOHANNA TREECK, BEN MUNSTER, BJARKE SMITH-MEYER and IZABELLA KAMINSKASNEAK PEEK— The ECB is expected to raise interest rates by 0.25 percent, 2:15 p.m.— The Federal Reserve suspended its cycle of rate hikes but warned that more would be needed later this year. — Beyoncé’s Stockholm concert drives inflation higher in Sweden.POLICY TICKERECB 3.75% ⇡ — BOE 4.5% ⇡ — FED 5.35% ⇡— SNB 1.5% ⇡— BOJ -0.10% ⇣— RBA 4.10% ⇡— PBOC 3.65%⇣— CBR 7.5% ⇣ — BOC 4.75 ⇡— SARB 8.25% ⇡Good morning and welcome to part two of the G3 central bank trifecta. The Federal Reserve held off hiking interest rates for the first time in 15 months, as expected, but chair Jerome Powell warned that “nearly all” policy-makers thought that further increases (sic) would be necessary by year end, the first of them coming as soon as July. Powell’s signalling — wh...

Migrants bused from Texas to Los Angeles in move mayor calls 'despicable stunt'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A group of migrants who arrived by bus in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday were sent from Texas in a move the city's mayor called a “despicable stunt” by a Republican governor. Forty-two people, including some children, were dropped off at Union Station around 4 p.m. and were being cared for by city agencies and charitable organizations, Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León’s office said. “They left yesterday and it was 23 hours on the bus and they did not have a chance to eat or to have water,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, who spoke to several migrants.“They are being fed; they're taking shelters; they’re talking to attorneys,” he said. “These are migrants that have been allowed by the U.S. to enter because they have credible fears. They have not yet received asylum."Many were from Latin American countries, including Honduras and Venezuela, and one person had an immigration appointment in New York, he said.Mayor ...

Colorado gay nightclub shooter expected to strike plea deal: ‘I have to take responsibility’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub is expected to strike a plea deal to state murder and hate charges that would ensure at least a life sentence for the attack that killed five people and wounded 17, several survivors told The Associated Press. Word of a possible legal resolution of last year’s Club Q massacre follows a series of jailhouse phone calls from the suspect to the AP expressing remorse and the intention to face the consequences at the next scheduled court hearing this month.“I have to take responsibility for what happened,” 23-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich said in their first public comments about the case. Federal and state authorities and defense attorneys declined to comment on a possible plea deal. But Colorado law requires victims to be notified of such deals, and several people who lost loved ones or were wounded in the attack told the AP that state prosecutors have given them advance word that Aldrich w...

Takeaways from AP report of expected plea deal in Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub is expected to strike a plea deal to state murder and hate charges that would ensure at least a life sentence for the attack that killed five people and wounded 17, several survivors told The Associated Press. Here are the key takeaways:WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE LEGAL CASE?Word of a possible legal resolution of last November’s Club Q massacre follows a series of jailhouse phone calls from suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich to the AP expressing remorse and the intention to face the consequences at the next scheduled court hearing this month.Federal and state authorities and defense attorneys declined to comment on a possible plea deal. But Colorado law requires victims to be notified of such deals, and several people who lost loved ones or were wounded in the attack told the AP that state prosecutors told them Aldrich will plead guilty to charges that would ensure the maximum state sentence o...

Bill Cosby sued by 9 more women in Nevada for alleged decades-old sexual assaults

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nine more women are accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to victimize them.A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels. One woman alleges that Cosby, claiming to be her acting mentor, lured her from New York to Nevada, where he drugged her in a hotel room with what he had claimed to be non-alcoholic sparkling cider and then raped her.The 85-year-old former “Cosby Show” star has now been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era — and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out the conviction and released him in 2021.E...

Palestinians say Israeli gunfire kills man in occupied West Bank

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli gunfire killed a Palestinian man Thursday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest death in a spike of violence that has rocked the region.The Palestinian Health Ministry said 20-year-old Khalil Yahya Anis was shot in the head in the city of Nablus, a frequent flashpoint for confrontations between the Israeli military and Palestinians.The Israeli military said troops operating in the city came under fire and fired back. The troops were demolishing the home of a Palestinian behind the killing of an Israeli soldier last year. Israel demolishes the homes of attackers in what it says is a deterrent against future attacks. Critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.Israel and the Palestinians have been gripped by months of violence, focused mainly in the West Bank, where some 120 Palestinians have been killed this year.Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in the West Bank in response to a spasm of Palestinian vio...

Chinese premier meets with Palestinian president in effort to increase Middle East presence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in a drive by Beijing to elevate relations and increase its overall presence in the Middle East. Li, who took office just this spring with little foreign policy experience, called Abbas “an old friend of the Chinese people” who has made “important contributions to the promotion of China-Palestinian relations.” The meeting came a day after Abbas was greeted with full military honors by Xi Jinping, China’s president and head of the ruling Communist Party.The sides then announced the formation of a “strategic partnership,” paving the way to boost China’s influence in the region at a time when Beijing’s chief rival for global influence, the United States, is seen as withdrawing from the region following the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and complications in ties with regional power Saudi Arabia. China, meanwhile, is seeking energy resources and markets for its milita...

Sunnyvale detective goes undercover as busboy to nab child-rape cold case suspect

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

In March 1996, a 7-year-old girl identified as Jane Doe in court documents was at home with family members when she answered the phone in the kitchen and spoke with a man who said he was a doctor, according to a court filing by a Sunnyvale police detective.When the caller asked for her address, she told him. She also answered a second call soon after, believed to be from the same man, who told her he was nearby and she should sneak out without telling her family. Outside, the man met her and led her into a side yard, where he raped her, Sunnyvale Det. Matthew Hutchison wrote in the filing.The girl was examined, and her clothing was sent for testing, which showed a DNA profile from a male. But there was no one in the FBI’s DNA database matching that profile.Then in March of last year, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office cold-case unit, through DNA and genealogical records — like those used to catch Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo — identified...

Suspect in Mission District mass shooting taken into custody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:36 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A suspect in connection to Friday's mass shooting in the Mission District is in custody, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) confirmed Wednesday night. Javier Campos was taken into custody after nine people were shot near 24th Street and Treat Avenue. Local leaders speak out after Mission District mass shooting Campos had "several" outstanding warrants for his arrest from other law enforcement agencies across the Bay Area, according to SFPD. Multiple agencies assisted in Campos' arrest.SFPD responded to the shooting Friday around 9:07 p.m. Nine of the victims were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. No other details were immediately available. This story will be updated.