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Nearly 40% of Marylanders can’t afford basic needs, study finds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

Many Marylanders are struggling to support their families and a new study looked at just how widespread the problem is across the state.United Way of Central Maryland compiled the numbers from the latest data available in 2021. It measures what the nonprofit calls ALICE — asset limited, income constrained and employed — people who earn more than the federal poverty level, but not enough to afford the basics where they live.The study also looked at the cost of living, health care, housing and other necessities.The study identified households that are above the federal poverty line but below a survival budget, defined as about $91,000 a year to support a family of four in Maryland.The report showed 10% of Marylanders were below the poverty line in 2021, and 28% were below the ALICE survival budget, compared to 25% in 2014. The study points out that while many households work hard, there is a major disparity between what jobs pay and the cost of living.In Baltimore City, 53% of househo...

Tito’s is trolling canned cocktails with a $200 empty keg

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

New York (CNN) — Tito’s Handmade Vodka is elevating its war against canned cocktails.For $200, the vodka maker is selling a “Tito’s in a Big Can,” which is a 128-ounce empty mini-keg that encourages drinkers to make their own cocktails rather than giving into the “canformity” (their word) of canned cocktails.“Last year, we drew a line in the sand while giving consumers the opportunity to make cocktails the way they like them, for themselves,” Taylor Berry, vice president of brand marketing for Tito’s, exclusively told CNN.This tongue-in-cheek stunt is a follow-up to its previous troll — called “Tito’s in a Can” — when it sold $20 refillable cans aimed at spurring people’s inner mixologists.The refillable mini-keg is now on sale for a limited time at Tito’s online store with net proceeds benefiting charity.Customers have been asking Tito’s to enter the canned cocktail space, Berry told CNN. It has resisted because Tito’s would rather focus on making vodka.“Tito’s was built on the ide...

Macron? No way! Russia doesn’t want French leader at summit with China and allies

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

The Kremlin isn’t impressed with French President Emmanuel Macron’s bid to crash the BRICS summit in South Africa later this summer.“We sent a signal that, with all due respect to the prerogatives of the host country, inviting certain guests should be based on the fact that BRICS is an association of states that, in principle, reject unilateral sanctions as a method of solving foreign policy problems,” Sergey Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said Thursday according to state-owned news agency TASS. “Considering this, the inappropriateness of the appearance of representatives of the collective West there is simply obvious,” Ryabkov added. South Africa will host the next summit of BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, all of which remain close to Moscow despite the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — in Johannesburg on August 22-24.The BRICS group of large emerging economies is the Global South’s...

Somerville school to remain closed next school year amid structural concerns

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

The Winter Hill Community Innovation School in Somerville will remain closed for the upcoming school year, officials announced months after a section of concrete fell into a stairwell inside the building. Officials said the concrete fell outside school operating hours, while the school was unoccupied. The incident prompted a safety review of the building that prompted school officials to move classes elsewhere for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year.Students will continue with off-site classes next year while repairs are made.The Winter Hill School serves about 400 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It has programs for autistic children and children who are learning English as a second language. 

German leader defends deal to stop migrants at EU borders, says old system was ‘dysfunctional’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday defended a deal to stop migrants from entering the European Union until their chances of getting asylum have been reviewed, arguing that the bloc’s existing arrangement is “completely dysfunctional.”Speaking to lawmakers in Berlin, he said the compromise reached earlier this month by the EU’s 27 member states after years of negotiations was a “historic agreement.” Human rights groups have criticized the deal, saying migrants, including families with children, will be held in camps while authorities check whether they are likely to be granted refugee protection inside the EU. The details are still to be worked out in negotiations with the European Parliament, which must approve the change to EU migration rules.“I know that the agreement isn’t without controversy in this house,” Scholz told parliament. “Everyone had to make compromises, including Germany.”“But it was the right thing to do in the interest of Euro...

Climate change leads to growing risk of mosquito-borne viral diseases, EU agency says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — European Union officials warned Thursday there is a growing risk of mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue and chikungunya in Europe due to climate change.The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that because Europe is experiencing a warming trend, with heat waves and flooding becoming more frequent and severe, and summers getting longer and warmer, the conditions are more favorable for invasive mosquito species such as Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti.The Stockholm-based agency said in a report that Aedes albopictus is a known vector of chikungunya and dengue viruses and has been establishing itself farther north and west in Europe. The other mosquito, Aedes aegypti, known to transmit dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, zika and West Nile viruses, has been established in Cyprus since 2022 and may spread to other European countries.A decade ago, the Aedes albopictus mosquito was established in eight European countries, with 114 re...

Stock market today: Global shares decline after Fed chair inflation comments

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mostly lower Thursday following a retreat on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve chair indicated he believes inflation still isn’t under control. Benchmarks in Europe slid in early trading as the central banks of Switzerland and Norway raised their benchmark interest rates to counter inflation, while the Bank of England was expected to do so. The British central bank is fighting to quash stubbornly high inflation that has failed to retreat from its peak as quickly as expected. The consensus among analysts was that it will raise its main interest rate by a quarter-percentage point — hitting a new 15-year high of 4.75%. But some worried it might opt for a bigger half-point increase, heaping pain on people with loans, especially the 1.4 million or so households in the U.K. that will have to refinance their mortgages over the rest of the year.France’s CAC 40 shed 1.2% in early trading to 7,174.46, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.7% to 15,907.25. ...

EU’s top court says Hungary broke the law by forcing migrants to go abroad to start asylum process

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that Hungary flouted the bloc’s laws and infringed on migrants’ rights by forcing asylum seekers inside the country or at its borders to start the process at its embassies in Serbia and Ukraine.Hungary’s anti-immigrant government has taken a hardline on people entering the country since well over one million people entered Europe in 2015, most of them fleeing conflict in Syria. It erected border fences and forcefully tried to stop many from entering.After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020, the government pushed through a law forcing people seeking international protection to travel to Belgrade or Kyiv to apply for a travel permit at its embassies there to enter Hungary. Only once back could they file their applications.The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, took Hungary to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the law, insisting that the country had failed to fulfil its obligations under the 27-...

India’s Modi is getting a state visit with Biden, but the glitz is shadowed by human rights concerns

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are marking the state visit of the Indian leader on Thursday by launching new partnerships in defense, semiconductor manufacturing and more sectors as the leaders look to strengthen their countries’ crucial — albeit complicated — relationship.But as Biden fetes Modi, human rights advocates and some U.S. lawmakers are questioning the Democratic president’s decision to offer the high honor to a leader whose nine-year tenure over the world’s biggest democracy has been marked by a backslide in political, religious and press freedoms.Biden administration officials say honoring Modi, the leader of the conservative Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, is Diplomacy 101. The U.S.-India relationship will be vital in coming decades as both sides navigate an ascendant China and enormous challenges posed by climate change, artificial intelligence, supply chain resilience and other issues.White House nat...

Norway raises key interest rate to fight inflation and expects further hikes ahead

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:34 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s central bank said Thursday that it has raised its key interest rate by half a percentage point in an effort to “bring inflation down to target.”Norges Bank said higher wage growth and a weaker-than-projected krone will raise inflation and that “international interest rates have risen more than anticipated.” The Scandinavian country, which is not part of the European Union, had an inflation rate in May of 6.7%. That’s far above the central bank’s target of 2%.“If we do not raise the policy rate, prices and wages could continue to rise rapidly and inflation become entrenched. It may then become more costly to bring inflation down again,” bank Gov. Ida Wolden Bache said in a statement.However, the bank said, “pressures in the Norwegian economy are easing.” Following Thursday’s hike to 3.75%, the policy rate will most likely be raised further in August, Norges Bank said.It comes on a busy day for central bank action in Europe, ...