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Italy eyes ECB board seat gamble

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank’s six-member strong executive board may welcome a new face later this year in a reshuffle that could see power shift from old, large member states to newer, smaller ones. Italian executive board member Fabio Panetta has been on the ECB’s executive board since 2020 but is thought by many to be sitting on packed bags, awaiting a move back to Rome to become the Governor of the Bank of Italy when Ignazio Visco retires in November. “It has been signaled for a long time that he would most likely follow Visco,” a former Eurosystem official said.The trouble is that the move could jeopardize Italy’s claim to one of the six top jobs in Frankfurt, reducing its influence over devising policies and robbing it of an extra vote on the policy-setting Governing Council.Officially, the ECB’s board is selected strictly on merit, irrespective of nationality. However, historically, the six-member strong executive board has always included representatives of th...

Fire crews battle Brockton blaze that spread through 2 multi-family homes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

Fire crews in Brockton battled an early morning, multi-alarm blaze that raced through two multi-family homes and left three people, including a firefighter, hospitalized, officials said.Firefighters responding to a structure fire on South Street around 3 a.m. found two large residential buildings going up in flames, according to Brockton fire officials.Although everyone who lives in the homes was able to get out safely, some became trapped by a fence in the back yard and had to be freed by firefighters.Fire officials say they believe all 19 people who lived in the buildings are accounted for. Two residents were taken to the hospital for exhaustion. One firefighter was also transported with undisclosed minor injuries.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.https://twitter.com/Brockton_Fire/status/1664198363896487937This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Hot Start To June, Weekend Temp Crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

Chalk up another beauty of a day yesterday as highs drifted up into the 70s and 80s during the afternoon with sunshine and low humidity. The low humidity allowed for another comfortable overnight last night and a pleasant start this morning. Areas of fog across the Cape and Islands will burn off by mid morning, providing a mostly sunny day. With the sunshine in place, temps take off today, heading for the upper 80s to lower 90s this afternoon. At the coast, it’ll be a bit cooler, with localized sea breezes as beach temps run in the mid 70s to mid 80s. Tomorrow, temps are similar, although we’ll track some scattered showers/storms in the afternoon. Once they get going, we’ll cool off, and cool off substantially by the evening as temps drop into the 50s/60s shortly after sunset with the wind kicking in out of the northeast. With an area of low pressure developing just to our east, the gusty northeast wind prevails both Saturday and Sunday as showers back in from time...

NYC woman indicted on hate crime charges accused of string of anti-Asian attacks, district attorney’s office says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

(CNN) — A New York City woman was indicted on seven felony hate crime charges in connection with a string of anti-Asian attacks on the city’s Upper West Side, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Wednesday.Camila Rodriguez, 29, was charged in two New York State Supreme Court indictments with assault in the second degree as a hate crime, six counts of assault in the third degree as a hate crime, and six counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree, the district attorney’s office said.CNN reached out to Rodriguez’s attorney at The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit that represents poor New Yorkers in legal matters, and was told the group had no comment.The six attacks took place from March 16 to May 11, all within blocks of one another, prosecutors said.Rodriguez is accused of pulling the hair of an Asian woman on West 108th Street on March 22 and then slapping her in the face after the victim spoke to her in Mandarin, according to the district attorney’s office...

Battenfeld: Massachusetts lawmakers passing few laws good news for beleaguered citizens

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

The shocking news that the do-nothing, Democratic-dominated Massachusetts Legislature has passed only 10 laws this year is actually great news for beleaguered taxpayers.Two handfuls? Even that’s too much for our lawmakers, whose favorite thing is to meddle with voter-approved laws and saddle citizens with even more taxes.The less ridiculous bills House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka conjure up and tell their flunkies to vote for, the better for us all.The 10 laws passed this year, most of them minor, are the least in decades, but if you look at the numbers, this is not surprising.The Massachusetts Legislature regularly delays business until the very end of the two-year session, when it usually passes a flurry of ill-conceived and little-studied bills that lawmakers don’t even read. Asking them to pass laws this early in the year is a bit much for our overworked representatives.And getting them to meet in the summer or on Mondays and Fridays or during vacation ...

Massachusetts assault weapons ban targeted in federal suit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

A national gun rights group has asked a federal judge to immediately halt the state’s longstanding ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines while the court decides whether the law should stand at all.The National Association for Gun Rights, a Colorado-based Second Amendment advocacy group, on Tuesday was heard by First Circuit U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in their attempt to overturn a 1998 assault weapons weapon ban made a permanent law in 2004 by then-Gov. Mitt Romney.“Massachusetts has been directly violating the Second Amendment for decades,” NAGR President Dudley Brown said. “Under Bruen, there is no doubt in my mind the days of Romney’s Assault Weapons Ban are numbered. The National Association for Gun Rights will see to it that the rights of the people of Massachusetts are restored.”The gun rights group says that their lawsuit comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which str...

Why this season will be a critical one for the Ravens’ offensive line | ANALYSIS

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

Last season’s Super Bowl opponents were strikingly similar. The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles both went 16-3, scored 546 points and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. But there was another, more significant, commonality integral to their success: a dominant offensive line.While much has changed in football through the decades, there’s little argument that having a great offensive line goes a long way. Of the 20 teams to play in the past 10 Super Bowls, 12 of them had an offensive line that finished in the top 10 of Pro Football Focus’ annual rankings. Last season, the Eagles’ offensive line was the best in the NFL, per PFF, while the Chiefs were fourth.The Ravens weren’t far behind: PFF graded them as the league’s second-best offensive line, and for good reason. In addition to being the least penalized unit in the NFL, All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley’s return in Week 5 from a devastating ankle injury that cost him nearly all of 20...

European summit in Moldova tackles Ukraine war, regional conflicts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

BULBOACA, Moldova (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took his quest for more arms and support to a sprawling summit of some 50 European leaders in Moldova on Thursday, becoming the focal point of an event that seeks to quell regional conflicts and shore up unity in the face of Russia’s war. The meeting of the pan-continental European Political Community, which embraces all European nations other than Russia and Belarus, gathered the heads of state and government from 47 countries but its attention was on the continent’s south and east — a region pushed to a turning point in its relationship with Moscow because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.The 27-nation EU wants to use the summit to reach out to many Eastern European countries that spent decades either within the Soviet Union or under its immediate sphere of influence, and to bolster the continent’s unified response to Russian aggression.The choice to hold the summit in Moldova, a former Soviet re...

Live Updates | Jordan’s royal wedding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The Latest on the royal wedding in Jordan of Crown Prince Hussein and Rajwa Alseif:Excitement has gripped Jordan over the royal wedding and preparations for the nightlong celebrations are underway. In downtown Amman, traffic was sparse and streets were quiet in in anticipation of the late afternoon nuptials on Thursday.Vendors capitalized on the wedding fever, hawking Jordanian flags, posters of the betrothed and the red-and-white checkered shemagh fabric traditionally worn by the Hashemites to those excited enough to get an early start.“She looks like such a princess that I think she deserves him,” Suhair Afaneh, a 37-year-old businesswoman, said of the bride, lingering in front of a portrait of Hussein in a dark suit.“But so what, I’ll still be in love with him.”She contemplated buying Hussein’s portrait to hang in her bedroom but her nieces persuaded her that her husband might not approve.___More on the royal wedding in Jordan:— Jordan’s royal wedding g...

Pakistan’s military says 2 soldiers killed in militant attack near border with Iran

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:46 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Militants attacked a Pakistani security post near the country’s border with Iran on Thursday, triggering a shootout that killed two soldiers, the military said.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the area of Singwan in restive southwestern Baluchistan province. The military said the two slain troops “embraced martyrdom while fighting bravely against the terrorists.”The military launched a search and Iranian authorities were alerted to watch for the assailants trying to escape, the statement said.The Iranian Embassy in the Pakistani capital condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the families of the two soldiers. In a post on Twitter, it urged for cooperation between the two neighboring countries “to combat terrorism.”Last month, five Iranian border guards were killed in a clash with an unknown armed group near the Pakistani border. Militants often target Pakistani and Iranian border guards in the region.Small...