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Time’s up for France in Africa

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

Michael Shurkin is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.I am a long-time watcher of France in Africa. I have published several, often-admiring papers on the subject, and frequently defend the country on social media. I have cheered French efforts to help the countries of the Sahel — most notably Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — to defend themselves against jihadist insurgencies affiliated with Al Qa’eda or the Islamic State.And yet, the only reasonable conclusion to draw now is that France should close its bases and go.The problem, as has been made clear by recent events in Niger, is that whatever France does, good or bad, provokes an allergic reaction from populations long conditioned to be suspicious of French motives and assume the worst.Whether this anti-French sentiment is fair or not is entirely beside the point. Ties with France have now become a kiss of death for African governments — a phenomenon demonstrated by the fate of Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum.How we got ...

Welcome to post-Brexit Britain: Conference center for the world

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

LONDON — Britain has spent years seeking its place in the world after Brexit. Now it seems to have found a role … as a global conference center, where the great powers gather to talk.Without a seat at the European table in Brussels, and also excluded from power-play summits between the EU and Washington, Britain hopes to wield its own “convening power” as it reboots its foreign policy ambitions. Indeed almost every time a major global issue has raised its head of late — climate change; war in Ukraine, the rise of AI; the energy crisis — Britain’s answer has been to host another world summit.Hot on the heels of this summer’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, U.K. government officials are now busy prepping for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s “major global summit on AI safety,” due to be held later this year.That event will be followed next spring by a global energy security conference, timed to mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And all...

The Commission’s Green Deal chief to exit Brussels for Dutch politics 

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

The European Union’s rush toward climate neutrality has run into turbulence — and now the pilot is bailing out. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s executive vice president in charge of the Green Deal, is all but guaranteed to head back to the Netherlands — at least temporarily — to lead a Labor-Green alliance in November’s national election. On Tuesday, the two parties are expected to confirm him as their lead candidate for Dutch prime minister. Having spent four years transforming how Europeans trade, travel, heat and eat, the bloc’s climate chief will now have to take a leave of absence from the Commission until after the Dutch election. He won’t have to resign and can return should he lose; his alliance currently has a narrow lead in POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. But his departure from Brussels comes at a crucial time for climate action both in the EU and abroad, as political resistance stiffens in the bloc and diplomatic talks gather pac...

Boston couple ready to tie the knot after dog eats passport days before destination wedding

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

A Boston couple is thanking everyone who stepped up to help after their beloved Golden Retriever, Chickie, at several pages out of the groom-to-be’s passport just days before they were set to fly to Italy for their dream wedding.“It’s been extremely stressful,” Magda Mazri said of the couple’s efforts to get an emergency passport in a rush. But thanks to some help from local legislators, she says she expects her soon-to-be husband, Donato Frattaroli, will have his passport in hand when its time to board their flight on Friday.Frattaroli scored an appointment at the passport office on Monday and said everything went well.Their plea for help with their situation was answered by George Regan of Regan Communications, Sen. Ed Markey and Congressman Stephen Lynch, who helped expedite the process of getting the replacement.

Plymouth man biking from Mass. to CA to raise money for local veterans

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

(WHDH) — A Plymouth man is biking across the country to raise money for a good cause.Jim Forand is riding from Plymouth to California to benefit The Nathan Hale Foundation, which helps troops and their families who are facing hardships.And he’s off to a great start. Forand covered 153 miles in his first day to end up in Connecticut. He’s now in Pennsylvania and is traveling with a tent to camp out under the stars whenever necessary.“The veterans are a little overlooked in this country, and the freedoms that we enjoy are because of the veterans, and that’s what propelled me to do this,” he said.“I think the veterans deserve everything we can possible do for them,” he said.To donate and learn more visit the GoFundMe page. It has already raised more than $10,000 toward his $15,000 goal.

Struggling Yankees promote top prospects Everson Pereira, Oswald Peraza: report

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

Short on options and low on time, the Yankees are promoting two of their top prospects.The team will add outfielder Everson Pereira and infielder Oswald Peraza to the major league roster before starting a series with the Washington Nationals on Tuesday, according to YES Network’s Jack Curry.Friday marked the first day that teams can call prospects up without them accruing 45 days of major league service time and therefore losing rookie eligibility in 2024. The Yankees, however, waited until after the were swept by the Red Sox at home to call on their youth.The 22-year-old Pereira is considered the Yankees’ third-best prospect, according to MLB.com. The Venezuelan native, in the organization since he was 17, ranks 80th in all of baseball.The hard-hitting Pereira has walked less since his promotion to Triple-A, as his walk rate has dropped from 10.3% to 8.2%. His strikeout rate, meanwhile, has dropped a bit from 29.2% to 27.8%, though that is still a high clip.Pereira has ...

DJ Stewart, Francisco Lindor homer as Mets break out the hammer on Braves in series-opening win

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

The Mets continued their recent winning ways on Monday against the MLB-best Braves. Buck Showaler’s squad broke out the big lumper in Atlanta with a 10-4 series-opening win.DJ Stewart opened up the scoring in the second with a solo homer and Francisco Lindor delivered the knockout blow with a three-run shot in the sixth to give the Amazins all they needed for their seventh out of their last nine contests.Jeff McNeil, Daniel Vogelbach, Pete Alonso and Stewart all registered RBI’s in the sixth as the Mets rallied off of Braves’ starter Allan Winans.The swinging Mets scored three runs in the second, four in the fifth and three sixth to keep the Braves out of the ballgame after they roughed up left-hander David Peterson.The southpaw surrendered four runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings of work. Peterson allowed two solo homers to Marcell Ozuna — one that gave the Braves the lead in the fourth — coughing up an early 3-0 lead.Showalter had to rely heavily on his...

Hilary left California desert roads covered in water and mud. Now it’s threatening Oregon and Idaho

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, flooded roads, toppled trees and forced a rescue by bulldozer of more than a dozen older residents trapped by mud in a care home Monday as it marched northward, prompting flood watches and warnings in half a dozen states.The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hilary had lost much of its steam and only vestiges of the storm were heading over the Rocky Mountains, but it warned that “continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” was expected over portions of the southwestern U.S., following record-breaking rainfall. Forecasters said the threat for flooding in states farther north on Monday was highest across much of southeastern Oregon into the west-central mountains of Idaho, with potential thunderstorms and localized torrential rains on Tuesday.Hilary first slammed into Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula as a hurricane, causing one death and widespread floo...

Divisive Thai ex-Prime Minister Thaksin returns from exile as party seeks to form new government

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Divisive ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand on Tuesday after years of self-imposed exile to face criminal charges on the same day that a party affiliated with him plans to start forming a new government.Thaksin has said his decision to return has nothing to do with an expected vote in Parliament later in the day on a candidate from the Pheu Thai party for prime minister. But many believe his arrival is connected to the party’s pursuit of power.Thaksin flew from Singapore in his private jet and landed at Don Mueang International Airport around 9 a.m. local time. Thai broadcasters aired live footage of him walking out of the airport’s private jet terminal with his daughter, key Pheu Thai member Paetongtarn Shinawatra, and greeting his supporters.After walking out, Thaksin placed a flower wreath and prostrated before a portrait of Thailand’s king and queen at the gate of the terminal.Supporters of him gathered outside of the airport hours ahead of ...

Cambodian Parliament approves longtime leader’s son as prime minister as part of generational change

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:51:57 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The son of longtime autocratic Cambodian leader Hun Sen was approved by Parliament on Tuesday as the country’s new prime minister, part of a generational change in top positions in the Southeast Asian nation. Hun Manet, 45, won his first seat in the National Assembly in July elections and takes over from his father, who had been Asia’s longest serving leader with nearly four decades in power, after serving as Cambodia’s army chief. He was approved by lawmakers unanimously and is to be officially sworn in later Tuesday. Even though he’s at the head of a Cabinet made up of about 3/4 new face s, most are the children or are otherwise related to those they are replacing, and experts caution against expecting broad changes in the country where human rights have been under attack and dissent suppressed.“There is not a big difference between the generations in political outlook, including in terms of how open or how competitive politics s...