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US academic’s appointment to EU job should stand, economists say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

Dozens of prominent European economists on Monday declared their support for the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton as the European Commission’s new chief competition economist.The appointment last week of Scott Morton unleashed harsh criticism, largely from the French establishment and the country’s business community. The concerns center on her American citizenship and her past work as a consultant for Big Tech companies.“The European Commission and, more broadly, us Europeans are very lucky to have drawn someone of her caliber,” reads the statement signed by 39 top competition experts, including Nobel Prize winner Bengt Holmstrom and French economist Olivier Blanchard. “Scott Morton is one of the best economists in the world in the domain of industrial organization, a major contributor to policy thinking on tech regulation, and strongly motivated for public service,” they added, and the Commission should “recruit the best possible collaborators in the s...

Russia killed off the Black Sea grain deal. What happens now?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

Russia on Monday pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered accord that has made it possible for Ukraine to export tens of millions of tons of grains and oilseeds over the past year even as the war rages on.The deal was vital to keeping food flowing from Ukraine — a major breadbasket — to the wider world. But Russia, claiming that its own food and fertilizer exports were being hurt by “hidden” Western sanctions, had already effectively strangled the deal before finally killing it off. Here’s how the deal worked and what might happen next:What was the Black Sea grain deal and how did it work? The United Nations and Turkey brokered the agreement a year ago to allow the safe passage of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea after shipments ground to a halt in the wake of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine and blockade of its seaports in February 2022.Under the agreement, a Joint Coordination Centre was set up to inspect ships and monitor their move...

Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, launches his campaign for US Senate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, launched a bid for the U.S. Senate on Monday, joining GOP efforts to try to unseat Democrat Sherrod Brown next year.LaRose, 44, is in his second term as Ohio’s elections chief, one of the state’s highest profile jobs. He managed to walk a delicate line between GOP factions divided by falsehoods sewn by former President Donald Trump over election integrity to score a convincing 59% of the statewide vote in his 2022 reelection bid. He first took office in 2019, with just over 50% of the vote, and previously spent eight years as a state senator and did a turn as a U.S. Army Green Beret.LaRose already has competition for the GOP nomination, including State Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, and Bernie Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland business owner whose bid Trump has encouraged. Dolan made his first Senate run last year, investing nearly $11 million of his own mo...

German captain in a migrant rescue standoff will run for the European Parliament

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Carola Rackete, who as captain of a humanitarian rescue ship was arrested in 2019 for docking in an Italian port without authorization, was presented Monday as one of a struggling German left-wing party’s top candidates for next year’s European Parliament election.The Left party unveiled Rackete as one of its two lead candidates in the election expected in the spring of 2024, alongside party co-leader Martin Schirdewan, who is already a European Parliament lawmaker.Rackete wrote on Twitter that she “didn’t take the decision lightly” and said she views her candidacy as an opportunity for a “new partnership” between social movements and the Left party. The party has been struggling for years and only just mustered enough support to stay represented in the German parliament in the last national election in 2021. Polls have shown its support stagnating at around 4% or 5%. Its position has been weakened further by a festering public rift between the leader...

Small tornado hits northwestern Puerto Rico, downing trees and power lines

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A small and rare tornado swept briefly through a town in northwestern Puerto Rico, damaging homes and causing at least one landslide, officials said Monday. No injuries were reported.The tornado touched down in the coastal town of Aguada on Sunday afternoon, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. The agency said it would analyze the damage to determine the tornado’s classification.Government officials told reporters that the short-lived tornado downed trees and power lines and tore off the roof of at least one home before it moved out to sea. Videos posted on social media show palm trees bending in heavy winds as debris swirls in the air as people are heard yelling in the background.A total of 24 tornadoes, including the one reported Sunday, have hit Puerto Rico since record-keeping began in 1950, according to a database by the U.S. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.“The majority of them don’t even cause any damage,” said Emanuel Rod...

China criticizes the upcoming US visit of Taiwan’s ‘separatist’ presidential front-runner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China has criticized an upcoming stopover in the United States by Taiwan’s vice president and presidential front-runner William Lai as a challenge to its territorial integrity, while Taiwan says it’s merely a transit stop.China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province to be retaken by force if necessary and prohibits its diplomatic partners – including the U.S. – from having formal ties with Taipei. While not recognizing Taiwan as a country, Washington maintains robust unofficial ties and has pledged to help Taiwan defend itself in case of an invasion.A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told a briefing in Beijing that China had lodged formal protests with the U.S. over Lai’s visit next month. “China is firmly opposed to any form of official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said. “We firmly reject Taiwan independence separatists visiting the U.S. under any name and for any reason, as well as any form of the U.S. conniv...

Hong Kong schools and stock market are shuttered as Typhoon Talim sweeps to the south, toward China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Schools and the stock market were closed in Hong Kong on Monday as Typhoon Talim sideswiped the city and headed toward landfall on the Chinese mainland and the island province of Hainan. Safety alerts were issued for residents and tourists who flock to the region’s beaches during the summer, calling on them to stay in safe places away from the threat of floods or landslides. State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of typhoon-swept winds and waves hitting an oil platform about 200 kilometers (124 miles) offshore. More than 9,800 workers have been evacuated from such facilities as of noon on Monday, CCTV said.In Macao, across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, schools suspended classes and public transport was shut down, CCTV said.In a sign of the typhoon’s power and range, residents outside the city of Fuzhou in Fujian province to the north were trapped in high waters as heavy rain fell, CCTV reported. About 1,000 villagers were affected and more than 50 nee...

Elton John backs Kevin Spacey’s testimony at the actor’s sexual assault trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

Elton John briefly testified Monday for the defense at Kevin Spacey ‘s sexual assault trial as the actor’s lawyer attempted to discredit a man who claimed the Oscar winner aggressively grabbed his crotch while driving to the singer’s summer ball.John appeared in the London court by video link from Monaco after his husband, David Furnish, testified that Spacey did not attend the annual party at their Windsor home the year the accuser said he was attacked.One of the alleged victims said he was driving Spacey to the White Tie & Tiara Ball in 2004 or 2005 when the actor grabbed him so forcefully he almost ran off the road.Furnish supported Spacey’s own testimony that he only attended the event in 2001. Furnish said he had reviewed photographs taken at the party from 2001 to 2005 and Spacey only appeared in images that one year. He said all guests were photographed each year.John said the actor attended the party in the early 2000s and arrived after flying in ...

Stock market today: As earnings season kicks off, global markets retreat on weak China growth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

BANGKOK — With earnings season ready to kick into high gear this week, Wall Street ticked lower early Monday after China reported weaker growth than forecast in the last quarter. Future for the S&P 500 inched down 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%. Wall Street’s expectations are low yet again heading into earnings season. Analysts are forecasting the worst drop in earnings per share for S&P 500 companies since the spring of 2020. That would mark a third straight quarter where profits sank.Such expectations are key for financial markets, because one of the biggest factors behind a stock’s price is how much profit the company earns. Wall Street nevertheless rallied hard this week thanks to rising optimism about the other major lever that sets stock prices: how much investors are willing to pay for each $1 of corporate profits.Coming up this week are results from Bank of America, Netflix, Tesla and airlines United and American. A retail sales report from th...

Freight train derails in southeast Pennsylvania, but no known injuries or hazards

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:44:50 GMT

WHITEMARSH TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — A freight train derailment in southeast Pennsylvania early Monday spurred precautionary evacuations, but officials said no injuries were reported and there was no known hazard to the public.The 40-car CSX train, which was operating on tracks owned by Norfolk Southern, derailed around 4:50 a.m. in Whitemarsh Township. More than a dozen cars appeared to be off the tracks.Silicone pellets were leaking from at least one train car, Whitemarsh police said, but they posed no risk to the public. It wasn’t immediately known what was inside the other derailed cars, and hazmat teams were at the site.The cause of the derailment was under investigation.Norfolk Southern — and the entire rail industry — has been under intense scrutiny since one of its trains derailed and caught fire in February in Ohio, creating towering black smoke, forcing evacuations and raising environmental worries.The Associated Press