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Germany has spent €55K on Merkel’s hair and makeup since she left office

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

The German government has splashed out almost €55,000 on former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hair and makeup since she left office in 2021. Despite departing Germany’s top job almost two years ago, Merkel is still billing the federal government for several expenses, according to documents obtained by Tagesspiegel via a Freedom of Information Act request.Merkel, according to a previous Tagesspiegel report, did not retain her longtime former makeup artist, but now relies on a new self-employed hair and makeup artist, who also works as a fashion designer, based in Berlin. The chancellery pays for Merkel’s hair and makeup for both public and private engagements. So far she has racked up a €17,200 bill in 2023, in addition to a €37,780 bill in 2022.“The assumption of costs is linked to the performance of continuing official duties — regardless of whether they are public or non-public,” the German chancellery told Tagesspiegel.Rising costs of officials&#...

Right wing set for big gains in 2024 EU election, polling shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

BRUSSELS — Right-wing and Euroskeptic parties are set to surge in the next European election at the expense of centrist parties, exclusive polling analysis by POLITICO’s Research and Analysis Division shows.If the elections were held today, the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) would become the third-biggest group in the European Parliament — tied with the centrist Renew — with 89 seats.EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS All 3 Years 2 Years 1 Year 6 Months Smooth Kalman circle.fill-EU-parliament-EPP, rect.fill-EU-parliament-EPP, svg.colorize path.fill-EU-parliament-EPP, text.fill-EU-parliament-EPP { fill: #3399FF; } circle.stroke-EU-parliament-EPP, rect.stroke-EU-parliament-EPP, svg.colorize path.stroke-EU-parliament-EPP, text.stroke-EU-parliament-EPP { stroke: #3399FF; } ...

41 migrants die in shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa island

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

Forty-one migrants, including three children, have died in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa, after a small boat which had set off from Sfax in Tunisia capsized and sank in the Strait of Sicily. Four people survived the shipwreck, three men and one woman originally from Ivory Coast and Guinea. They were rescued by a Maltese cargo ship and taken to Lampedusa by the Italian Coast Guard, according to Italian newswire ANSA.The four survivors told the Coast Guard that 45 people had left Sfax. After about six hours of navigation, the 7-meter metal boat capsized due to a large wave and all 45 migrants ended up in the sea. Authorities have not yet recovered the bodies.According to the International Organization for Migration, since the beginning of the year, 2,387 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach European shores. In Brussels, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Italian government has been pushing to review rules on how the EU w...

Northern Ireland’s police publish data of entire force by mistake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has opened an investigation after it published a spreadsheet containing the professional data of its officers and civilian workforce by mistake, a senior officer said Tuesday.“The data concerned contained the surnames and initials of current employees alongside the location and department within which they work,” Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd said in a statement, adding that the breach “resulted from information included in error in response to a Freedom of Information Request.”“Although it was made available as a result of our own error, anyone who did access the information before it was taken down is responsible for what they do with it next. It is important that data anyone has accessed is deleted immediately,” the officer said.The data breach is particularly sensitive given members of the PSNI have been targeted by republican paramilitaries in Northern Ireland in recent months. In February,...

Man facing attempted murder, kidnapping charges following fire in Peabody

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

A Peabody man will be arraigned Wednesday on arson, attempted murder, domestic assault and battery, and kidnapping charges after his arrest following a fire response, officials said.Police and fire responding to a fire alarm at 85 Lowell St. around 11 p.m. found a woman yelling that her boyfriend was trying to kill her, according to Peabody police.After extinguishing a fire in the woman’s apartment, Edi Diazabakana, 39, was placed under arrest.He is expected to be arraigned at Peabody District Court.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Clean-up underway after storms spin up EF-1 tornado in Mattapoisett, EF-0 in Barnstable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

Crews are out in force restoring power and clearing downed tress after officials with the National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Massachusetts during a series of strong storms on Monday – an EF-1 in Mattapoisett and an EF-0 in Barnstable.The National Weather Service – Boston/Norton office said that a survey team was in the process of investigating damage after the tornado appeared around 11:30 a.m., while a Tornado Warning for the area was active.“A small EF-1 tornado touched down in the town of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts at 11:20 AM EDT. The storm was on the ground for approximately 3 minutes,” the National Weather Service National Headquarters stated in a report. “The storm moved to the northeast at approximately 20 MPH and lifted off the ground on North Street just north of Eldorado Drive. SKY7-HD later flew over the area and spotted hundreds of downed trees – a number of which landed on various homes, sheds and...

Fire in French holiday home for disabled kills at least 9 people with 2 more feared dead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A fire ripped through a vacation home for adult people with disabilities in eastern France on Wednesday, killing nine people while two others are believed to have died, the head of rescue operations said.Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Hauwiller, who is leading the firefighters’ rescue operation, said, “We are currently searching for the bodies… two remain to be found.”Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she was heading to the site of the fire.The local administration of the Haut-Rhin region said the fire broke out at 6:30 a.m. in private accommodation in the town of Wintzenheim. Seventeen people were evacuated, including one person with serious injuries who was sent to a hospital.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.———Christophe Marot, the secretary general of the local administration, said on news broadcaster France Info the group includes adults with “slight intellectual disabilities.” He said that ...

Biden is pitching his economic policies as a key to a manufacturing jobs revival

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Bringing back factory jobs is one of the most popular of White House promises — regardless of who happens to be the president.Donald Trump said he’d do it with tariffs. Barack Obama said companies would start “insourcing.” George W. Bush said tax cuts would do the trick. But factory jobs seemed to struggle to fully return after each recession.On Wednesday, President Joe Biden will make the case in a New Mexico speech that his policies of financial and tax incentives have revived U.S. manufacturing. His claim is supported by a rise in construction spending on new factories. But factory hiring has begun to slow in recent months, a sign that the promised boom has yet to fully materialize.That hasn’t stopped the White House from telling voters ahead of the 2024 election that the Democratic president’s agenda has triggered a “renaissance” in factory work.“Hundreds of actions coordinated through his entire government are sparking a m...

Ohio’s Issue 1 would have made protecting abortion rights harder. Data shows why it failed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH and SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON (Associated Press)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year.The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments, rather than the 60% supermajority that was proposed. Its supporters said the higher bar would protect the state’s foundational document from outside interest groups.Voter opposition to the proposal was widespread, even spreading into traditionally Republican territory. In fact, in early returns, support for the measure fell far short of former President Donald Trump’s performance during the 2020 election in nearly every county.Dennis Willard, a spokesp...

Howie Carr: Rehire the ‘Baker’s Dozen’ troopers! Today!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:13 GMT

Call them the Baker’s Dozen – the 13 Massachusetts state troopers who remain fired in the wake of the Wuhan Panic back in 2020-22.Last week an arbitrator ordered the reinstatement of seven other honest troopers who were fired during the hysterical overreaction by Gov. Charlie Baker.But 13 more troopers remain to be reinstated. And the rest of us must never forget what the Deep State did to all of us during the Red Chinese-created virus, in their insane obsession to destroy the presidency of Donald J. Trump.The reinstatement hearings for the last 13 troopers will take place this fall. It appears likely they too will be awarded their jobs back, along with back pay, time in service and all the rest of what they were stripped of so arbitrarily, for absolutely no good reason.The 20 troopers claimed that they had religious objections to the vaccines on a variety of grounds – use of fetal cells, etc. The seven just offered their jobs back were found to have had sincere beliefs. But the sta...