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Sweden expels 5 Russian Embassy staff on suspicion of spying

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden on Tuesday informed Russia that five employees with the Russian Embassy in Stockholm have been asked to leave the country, saying they are suspected of spying.Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said their activities are “incompatible” with their diplomatic status.In a statement, Billström said Russia’s Ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, had been informed of the decision earlier Tuesday. A year ago, Sweden expelled three Russian Embassy staff as several countries kicked out Russian diplomats.Sweden’s SAPO domestic security agency has said that “every third Russian diplomat in Sweden is an intelligence officer.” It is not known how many diplomats from Russia are officially assigned to Sweden.Billström’s announcement came after public broadcasters in the Nordic countries reported in a joint investigation that Russia is suspected of spying in the waters of the Baltic Sea and North Sea using civi...

Buses to replace Red Line’s Braintree branch for 16 nights in May

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

A batch of weekend and nighttime closures will hit segments of the Red Line in May to give MBTA crews more time to perform maintenance and repairs aimed at lifting speed restrictions, the T announced Monday.MBTA officials rolled out a schedule of shutdowns and diversions for next month impacting all four major subway lines and several commuter rail lines. Much of the work planned for the Red Line is related to slow zones, which today cover about 26% of the entire line that stretches from Cambridge to Braintree and Mattapan.Subway service on the Red Line will go offline between JFK/UMass and Braintree stations around 8:45 p.m. each night for 16 nights next month: May 8-12, May 15-19, May 22-25 and May 30-31. Shuttle buses will replace trains during those spans.The MBTA said the series of evening closures will “allow MBTA crews to perform critical rail and tie replacement work on the Braintree Branch that will alleviate speed restrictions.”Shuttle buses will replace Red Li...

GM boosts outlook as sales in US fuel strong first quarter

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

By TOM KRISHER (AP Auto Writer)DETROIT (AP) — Strong sales in the U.S. helped General Motors increase its first-quarter net profit 19% over a year ago, leading the company to raise its full-year profit guidance based on expectations demand for its vehicles will remain robust.The Detroit automaker made $2.37 billion from January through March, up from $1.99 billion in the previous year. Excluding a $900 million charge to pay severance packages to about 5,000 white-collar workers who took buyouts during the quarter, GM made $2.21 per share, soundly beating analyst estimates of $1.72, according to FactSet.Revenue for the quarter came in just shy of $40 billion, up 11% from a year ago and beating projections for $38.55 billion. The company, after the strong start to the year, raised its pretax profit guidance for 2023 to a range of $11 billion to $13 billion. Previously it was $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion.CEO Mary Barra also announced that GM will stop building the electric Chev...

Stock markets today: Wall Street lower; First Republic drops

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping in early trading on Wall Street after a torrent of companies gave mixed earnings reports for the first three months of the year. The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in the early going Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.4%. First Republic Bank tumbled 27%, the sharpest loss in the S&P 500, after it said customers withdrew more than $100 billion during the first quarter. That doesn’t include the $30 billion big banks plugged in after the second- and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street futures followed global markets lower Tuesday amid a bevy of U.S. earnings reports and an update on economic growth.Futures for the Dow slipped 0.2% and the S&P fell 0.4%.Dozens of the nation’s biggest companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, are due to report earnings this week. McDonald’s rose before the bel l ...

Big Tech crackdown looms as EU, UK ready new rules

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Amazon and other Big Tech companies are facing rising pressure from European authorities as London and Brussels advanced new rules Tuesday to curb the power of digital companies. The U.K. government unveiled draft legislation that would give regulators more power to protect consumers from online scams and fake reviews and boost digital competition.Meanwhile, the European Union was set to release a list of the 19 biggest online platforms and search engines that face extra scrutiny and obligations under the 27-nation bloc’s landmark digital rules taking effect later this year. The updates help solidify Europe’s reputation as the global leader in efforts to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.Britain’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers bill proposes giving watchdogs more teeth to draw down the dominance of tech companies, backed by the threat of fines worth up to 10% of their annual revenue. Und...

Colombia hosts conference on Venezuela’s political crisis

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Diplomats from 20 countries were gathering Tuesday in Colombia to discuss the political crisis in Venezuela, where Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration has strengthened its autocratic rule despite international efforts to expand political freedoms in the South American nation.The conference is hosted by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has called for sanctions on Venezuela’s government to be lifted, but also for policies that ensure “more democracy” in Venezuela.Delegates from the United States, the European Union, Brazil and the United Kingdom were slated to attend the one-day event, which also will look at ways to boost negotiations between the Maduro administration and a coalition of opposition parties known as the Democratic Unitary Platform. Those talks began in Mexico in 2021 but stalled at the end of last year.While members of the Unitary Platform are backing the Colombia meeting, some factions of Venezuela’s opposition have questioned...

H&R REIT reaches deal with activist investor K2, will increase board size to 10

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

TORONTO — H&R Real Estate Investment Trust has reached a deal with an activist investor that had sought changes at the trust’s board.Under the agreement, K2 Principal Fund LP and K2 & Associates Investment Management Inc. has withdrawn their four nominees who were slated to stand for election at the trust’s meeting on June 15.Instead, K2 has agreed with H&R to support the election of two additional, mutually agreed upon, independent trustees, Lindsay Brand and Leonard Abramsky.The move will increase the size of the trust’s board by two to 10 trustees.K2 will also vote in favour of the other trustees slated for re-election. H&R REIT is one of the country’s largest real estate investment trusts with a portfolio of residential, industrial, office and retail properties.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:HR.UN)The Canadian Press

EU nations seek to end Ukraine farm import standoff

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Hoping to maintain a unified stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the European Union on Tuesday looked for a way to satisfy the concerns of member nations facing a destabilizing glut of Ukrainian farm exports. The 27-nation EU lifted agricultural import restrictions last year to help Ukraine get its vast grain supplies to world markets amid a Russian blockade. Eastern European nations like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia have since reported being flooded with imported products. To protect their farmers, the countries unilaterally banned Ukrainian farm imports for their national markets. The moves went against the principle that the EU sets trade policy for all 27 nations and could give the impression that the bloc is fighting internally instead of facing Russia jointly. “We are really, really afraid of the consequences of these unilateral restrictions. And Finland sees that this restrictions can call into question unity in support of Ukraine,” Finnish Agricultur...

Professionals see less credibility, value on Twitter after Musk takeover

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

TORONTO — Professionals on Twitter say they’re noticing many people and organizations put less time into the platform after billionaire businessman Elon Musk bought it and made a slew of changes.Media relations professional Anne Marie Aikins sees organizations tweeting less and suspects it’s because of how easy Musk has made it to target brands with misinformation that could tarnish their image.She says it’s tiresome and hard for media relations workers to tamp down on false information on the platform and the companies they work for are seeing their tweets reach a diminishing audience.Courtney Radsch has similarly seen less Twitter activity from journalists, media outlets and academics and like Aikins, attributes it to Musk’s recent changes to verification and relaxed stance on moderation.She says professionals are less likely to want to be active on the platform, when they encounter harassment and hate filled speech that Musk isn’t quelling.Musk recently stripped notable use...

Moscow hosts more Turkey-Syria rapprochement talks

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:15:07 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s defense minister on Tuesday hosted his counterparts from Iran, Syria and Turkey for talks that were part of the Kremlin’s efforts to help broker a rapprochement between the Turkish and Syrian governments.The Russian Defense Ministry said the talks focused on “practical steps to strengthen security in the Syrian Arab Republic and to normalize Syrian-Turkish relations.”Moscow has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, teaming up with Iran to allow Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government to reclaim control over most of the country while Turkey has backed armed opposition to Assad throughout the 12-year conflict.While the bulk of Russia’s armed forces have been busy fighting in Ukraine, Moscow has maintained its military presence in Syria and has also made persistent efforts to help Assad rebuild fractured ties with Turkey and other countries in the region following the civil war that has killed nearly 500,000 people and disp...