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France’s Macron heckled by crowd angry over pensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

PARIS (AP) — In France, when presidents take strolls among the public, they’re described as “taking a crowd bath.” Emmanuel Macron took a very cold one on Wednesday.Braving hecklers who shouted for him to resign, the French leader threw himself into the uphill task of repairing damage done to his presidency by forcing through unpopular pension reforms, taking his first such “crowd bath” since he enacted the law last week. The visit to eastern France, close to the border with Germany, was part of a concerted new effort by Macron and his government to put the furor caused by the pension change behind him. Raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 has ignited a months-long firestorm of protest in France.The uproarious climate of discontent threatens Macron’s ability to get some other planned policies through in the remaining four years of his second and last term. He got to see first-hand how unhappy people still are when he mingled among a crowd in the town of Selestat.One man who shoo...

Nebraska lawmakers pass permitless concealed carry gun bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday to allow people to carry concealed guns in the state without a permit, just as national attention has ramped up over gun violence in the wake of several mass shootings, including the killing last month of six people at a Tennessee school.Despite opponents filibustering the bill for 14 hours over three rounds of debate this session, lawmakers voted 33-14 to pass the so-called constitutional carry bill. The bill does not usurp the federal requirement for a background check to buy a gun, and those with a history of crime or mental health issues that bar them from possessing a gun would still be barred under the Nebraska bill. But it allows eligible people to carry guns hidden in their clothing or vehicle without having to pay for a government permit or take a gun safety course, which is currently required. It also overrides stricter gun laws in the state’s cities, including in the state’s largest city of Omaha, which requi...

Common mistakes, uncommon reactions in 3 separate shootings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

In the span of six days, four young people across the U.S. have been shot — one fatally — for making one of the most ordinary and unavoidable mistakes in everyday life: showing up at the wrong place. A man shot and wounded two cheerleaders outside a Texas supermarket early Tuesday after one of them said she mistakenly got into his car thinking it was her own.A group looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York arrived in the wrong driveway only for one of them to be shot to death Saturday night, authorities said.In Missouri last Thursday, a Kansas City teen was shot twice after going to the wrong home to pick up his younger brothers, raising questions about the state’s “stand your ground law” and heightening racial tensions. Below is a brief glance of each shooting and the ensuing criminal investigations in Missouri, New York and Texas. THE SHOOTING IN KANSAS CITY Honors student Ralph Yarl, 16, mixed up the address when he went to pick up his twin brothers on Thursday nigh...

Sudanese army, its rivals announce another cease-fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Terrified Sudanese who have been trapped for days in their homes by fighting in the capital of Khartoum fled on Wednesday, hauling out whatever belongings they could carry and trying to get out of the city, as the military and its paramilitary rival made a new attempt at a 24-hour cease-fire after a failed truce the day before.The new cease-fire attempt came as alarm was growing that millions of Sudanese were on the brink of disaster from the past five days of warfare between the country’s two most powerful generals. Desperate residents of the capital have been running out of food and other supplies as they sheltered in their homes from the gun battles, bombardment and airstrikes on the streets outside. Hospitals have been damaged and forced to close or have been overwhelmed by wounded, with staff exhausted and medical supplies depleted. Increasingly, armed fighters have turned to looting shops and robbing anyone who dares step outside. Nearly 300 people...

Are you a Facebook user? You could get some settlement cash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

Anyone in the U.S. who has had a Facebook account at any time since May 24, 2007, can now apply for their share of a $725 million privacy settlement that parent company Meta has agreed to pay.Meta is paying to settle a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social media platform allowed millions of its users’ personal information to be fed to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.It’s not clear how much money individual users will receive. The larger the number of people submitting valid claims, the smaller each payment will be since the money has to be divided among them. To apply for the settlement, users can fill out a form and submit it online, or print it out and mail it. The case sprang from 2018 revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a firm with ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million users of the platform. That data was then ...

Truck involved in deadly hit-and-run located by Fort Collins police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (KDVR) — Police in Fort Collins say they have located the truck that is connected to a deadly hit-and-run where a pedestrian was hit by at least two vehicles. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a Medina Alert Wednesday morning asking the community to be on the lookout for a dark-colored Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck, which was found several hours later. According to the Fort Collins Police Services, on Tuesday at 11:39 p.m., officers responded to a pedestrian that was run over in the 900 block of East Mulberry Street just north of the Mantz neighborhood. Residents concerned about eroding stretch of US 285 The pedestrian, an adult man, died on scene. After an initial investigation, officers believe the pedestrian was hit by at least two different vehicles, neither of which stayed to check on the man or report the crash to police.Based on witnesses and evidence, police believe one of the cars involved is a Chevrolet truck.The vehicle is described as:20...

Dolphins’ Tagovailoa considered retirement after concussions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Tua Tagovailoa considered walking away from football.It was a brief thought after he was diagnosed with two concussions last season and many questioned if it was safe for the 25-year-old Miami Dolphins quarterback to continue playing.But after talking to his family and doctors, Tagovailoa ruled out retirement and started training in martial arts this offseason to help reduce head injuries.“I always dreamed of playing as long as I could to where my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “It’s my health. It’s my body. And I feel like this is what’s best for me and my family. I love the game of football. If I didn’t, I would have quit a long time ago.”Now, Tagovailoa is learning how to fall.Though he’s still early in his jiu jitsu training — a white belt — Tagovailoa is working on ways to land more safely when he’s on the field.“We used crash pads at first with trying to fall,” he said. “Obviously tucking your chin, that...

2 carjacking suspects in custody after multi-county chase that included desperate swim

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

A multi-county police chase has ended after two desperate and armed suspects terrorized drivers, and one tried to flee by swimming in a canal and breaking into a home. It all began when police responded to a report of an armed carjacking of a white Lexus at the 12800 block of North Bayshore Drive in North Miami, early Wednesday afternoon.Soon after, a dramatic chase ensued that went all the way into Palm Beach County and came to a stop in Tamarac, after the chase wound its way down to Broward County.Toward the end of the chase, most of which was caught on camera by 7 Skyforce, at Commercial Boulevard and the Florida Turnpike overpass, one of the subjects, holding a rifle, tried to carjack another driver of a silver car. When the driver refused to open the door, the subject gave up and returned to the Lexus.The subjects took off and, in the area of Commercial Boulevard and Rock Island, the driver of the stolen Lexus could be seen getting out of the vehicle and pointed a gun at the dr...

Germany rethinks China’s Hamburg port deal as further doubts raised

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

BERLIN — Further doubts loom over the fate of a controversial plan to sell parts of a Hamburg port terminal to China, amid pressure for Berlin to rethink its ties to Beijing.A new internal report by the German economy ministry, obtained by POLITICO, accuses the Hamburg port operating company of failing to properly register the terminal in question as “critical infrastructure,” which would have changed the scope of the deal.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, pushed the deal through last October for Chinese state company Cosco to buy a minority stake in the Tollerort terminal in the Hamburg port, ahead of a state visit to China. But this came amid objections within his three-party coalition government, with members of the Green party and liberal FDP expressing concerns about undue Chinese influence.As POLITICO reported last week, the deal has now been thrown into uncertainty after Germany’s BSI security agency recently declared the facility as “critical infrastruc...

Feeling Blessed: Haverhill man says he felt compelled to buy $1M-winning ticket after Easter Mass

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:02:08 GMT

A man from Haverhill won big earlier this month, telling lottery officials he felt a need to buy scratch tickets after being blessed at Easter Mass.Edward Richards was the winner of a $1 million prize after buying a $50 “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” instant ticket, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.Richards told officials he bought the ticket after attending Easter Mass on Saturday, April 8, where, after being blessed with holy water at Mass, he felt a need to buy some lottery tickets.“He ended up going to a store in an area he would not have otherwise been had he not gone to Mass, purchasing his winning ticket at Richdale Convenience, 67 W. Main St. in Georgetown,” the Mass Lottery website stated.Joined by his daughters, Richards chose his prize’s cash option at the Mass Lottery headquarters in Dorchester, opting for a one-time payment of $650,000 (before taxes).He told lottery officials he plans to use the winnings for home improvements as well as inst...