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Artisans from around the world hand carve 1,000 tons of ice into sculptures

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — On Friday, "ICE!" at the Gaylord Rockies opens. It will feature scenes from the holiday movie "A Christmas Story," a two-story tall slide, tunnels and arches all made from two million pounds of ice. Ice castles are not new to Colorado: Looking back on Leadville’s Ice Palace Walk through the handcarved sculptures that took around six weeks and 12,000 man-hours to create."ICE!" at Gaylord Hotels (Courtesy of Gaylord Hotels)"ICE!" at Gaylord Hotels (Courtesy of Gaylord Hotels)Slides at "ICE!" at Gaylord Hotels (Courtesy of Gaylord Hotels)"A Christmas Story" at "ICE!" at Gaylord Hotels (Courtesy of Gaylord Hotels)"A Christmas Story" at "ICE!" at Gaylord Hotels (Courtesy of Gaylord Hotels)Forty professional artisans from Harbin, China - which is also known as "Ice City" - came to Aurora to build the ice carvings.Harbin is home to the world’s largest annual ice and snow sculpting festival in the world. Some of the artisans who participated in the Harbin festival also wor...

Germany suggests UN take control in Gaza after Israel-Hamas war ends

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

Germany has floated that the United Nations could take control in Gaza once the Israel-Hamas war is over, according to a document seen by POLITICO. However, both the Palestinians and some EU diplomats have serious doubts about the feasibility of the idea, with a senior Palestinian figure in Europe calling it “unacceptable.”Israel has been striking the densely populated Gaza Strip in reaction to an attack by Hamas on October 7, during which the militant group killed around 1,200 Israelis. According to data from the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli strikes have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians.  Discussions are ongoing about how to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and how to stop the fighting. But there are also increasing discussions on scenarios for after the war. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” should ultimately govern Gaza but offered no indications on how to...

Hunters press von der Leyen to revise rules for shooting wolves

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

European hunters want Ursula von der Leyen to do more to protect farmers from wolves and speed up the ongoing review of the large carnivore’s protection status.In a letter sent to the European Commission president Wednesday, the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation asked von der Leyen to engage in “swift action to establish practical management frameworks for coexistence.”The hunters’ association asked the Commission to review wolves’ protection status by amending the annexes of the EU Habitats Directive — something that environmental groups are pushing back against. The large carnivore is currently under strict protection, meaning that shooting wolves is banned in most cases but can be allowed in specific circumstances, notably when the animal poses a danger to people and livestock.The hunters also called to “clarify the flexibility” given to EU countries to manage wolves and “implement a new approach to assess the conserv...

PMQs scorecard: Rwanda and reshuffle rows on a tough day for Rishi Sunak

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through.What’s going on? It’s been a blockbuster week in Westminster … and it’s only Wednesday. The most recent OMG moment came on Wednesday morning with the Supreme Court ruling that the government’s much-hyped plan to send refugees to Rwanda is unlawful. And even if it feels like it was weeks ago, on Monday, the prime minister sacked his troublesome Home Secretary Suella Braverman and reshuffled his Cabinet to include former top dog David Cameron as his new foreign secretary. Now, onto the drama…What they sparred about: At first, David Cameron. “The prime minister obviously thinks so little of his own MPs that he has had to peel David Cameron away from his seven-year exile in a shepherd’s hut and make him foreign secretary,” quipped Labour Leader Keir Starmer. Sunak described his new forei...

Top court blows €60B hole in Germany’s climate financing plans

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

The German government’s decision to fund its green transition by reallocating €60 billion in unused debt unlocked during the COVID-19 pandemic is unconstitutional, Germany’s top court ruled Wednesday.The judgment deals a major blow to Germany’s coalition government at a time of tense budget negotiations.The reallocation violated the so-called debt brake, a constitutional provision that caps government borrowing except during emergencies and recessions, the Federal Constitutional Court said in a press release.In February 2022, the federal government shifted €60 billion in emergency loans, which were originally intended to help cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, to a climate fund meant to help finance the country’s green transition.The government’s decision was subsequently challenged in court by lawmakers from the center-right opposition.“The Court’s decision means that the volume of the Climate and Transformation Fund is reduced by EUR 60 billion,&#...

High interest rates have hit growth more than expected, EU says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

Europe’s economy will grow less than forecast after a rapid round of interest rate hikes “took a heavier toll than previously expected,” the European Commission said Wednesday, as it warned an escalation of the conflict in Gaza could trigger further deterioration. Only two months after its last set of predictions, the EU’s executive arm downgraded its growth forecast for 2023 to 0.6 percent in both the EU and the eurozone. That’s 0.2 percentage points lower than it said it expected in September.These forecasts come just over a year after inflation in the eurozone soared to a peak of 10.7 percent. While that’s slowed since, the European Central Bank has continued its battle against rising prices, and in September increased interest rates to a record 4 percent — by far the most aggressive tightening of monetary policy in its 25-year existence.Wednesday’s outlook signals that these rising rates have gnawed away at the European economy, while uncertainties stemm...

FlyDubai resumes flights to Afghanistan after halting them 2 years ago as Taliban captured Kabul

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Wednesday welcomed the resumption of FlyDubai flights to Kabul’s international airport two years after stopping service following the collapse of the Western-backed government.All international airlines halted flights to Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces departed after two decades of war.A United Arab Emirates-based FlyDubai flight landed in Kabul on Wednesday. FlyDubai, the sister carrier of long-haul airline Emirates, now will make two flights a day to Kabul. The office of the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, Abdul Ghani Baradar, in a statement Wednesday described the flight resumption as “indicative of the restoration of Afghanistan’s airspace to a secure and conventional state, accommodating various types of flights.” However, nearly all Western carriers are avoiding flying in Afghan airspace.“It shows that all airports in Afg...

Retail sales slip in October as consumers pull back after summer splurges

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans cut back on retail spending in October, ending six straight months of gains, though the decline was partly driven by falling prices for both gasoline and cars. Retail sales declined 0.1% last month after jumping a strong 0.9% in September, according to a report released Wednesday by the Commerce Department. September’s figure was revised higher from an initial report of a 0.7% gain. Excluding sales of gas and autos, retail sales ticked up 0.1%. The figures reflect a slowdown in consumers’ willingness to spend after a blowout summer. Consumer spending jumped in the July-September quarter, but economists forecast it will slow in the final three months of the year, as credit card debt — and delinquencies — rise and average savings are falling. Online spending rose 0.2% last month, according to the report. Sales at general merchandise stores fell 0.2% and sales at home furnishings and furniture stores plunged 2%. Recent U.S. data has revealed that a...

US producer prices slide 0.5% in October, biggest drop since 2020.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell sharply last month as inflationary pressure continued to ease in the face of a year and a half of higher interest rates.The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — dropped 0.5% in October from September, biggest drop since April 2020. On a year-over-year basis, producer prices were up 1.3% from October 2022, smallest gain since July. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core consumer prices were unchanged from September to October and rose 2.4% from a year earlier.The wholesale price of goods fell 1.4% from September to October, pulled down by a 15.3% drop in the price of gasoline. Services prices were unchanged. Inflation last year reached heights not seen in four decades, prompting the Fed to raise its benchmark 11 times since March 2022. In the face of higher borrowing costs, inflation has decelerated sharply. On Tuesday, the Labor Department...

Japanese actor-director Kitano says his new film explores homosexual relations in the samurai world

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:50 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano says he wanted his new film “Kubi” to show the world of samurai in ways that mainstream movies have rarely done before, by portraying the homosexual, love-hate relationship of warlords in one of Japan’s best known historical episodes.“What is never shown is relationships between men at that time, including their homosexual relationships,” Kitano told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Wednesday ahead of the Nov. 23 opening of his film in Japan.The story of “Kubi,” or “neck,” shows the 1582 ambush of Oda Nobunaga, one of Japan’s best-known warlords, at the Honnoji temple in Kyoto by an aide, Akechi Mitsuhide.Past dramas from that period have only shown “very cool actors and pretty aspects,” Kitano said.“This is a period when especially men were keeping up with their lives for other men within these relationships, including sexual relationships,” he said. ”So I wanted to delve in...