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Boris Johnson referred to police over suspected COVID rule breach (again)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

LONDON — Boris Johnson has been referred to police for a second time after his own legal team raised concerns that he breached COVID lockdown rules.The former British prime minister faces an investigation by the Metropolitan and Thames Valley Police following suggestions, first reported by the Times, that fresh potential incidents of rule-breaking were unearthed during preparations for an inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic.According to the newspaper, lawyers are said to have become concerned that entries in Johnson’s ministerial diaries appeared to suggest he had hosted visitors at both 10 Downing Street and the prime minister’s grace-and-favor country house, Chequers, at a time when gatherings were illegal.The Cabinet Office said in a statement that the new information was unearthed as part of the “normal disclosure review.” It added: “In line with obligations in the Civil Service Code, this material has been passed to the relevant authorities and it is now a matter for them....

Germany’s coalition parties come to blows over budget cuts, delay to energy law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

BERLIN — Germany’s three-party ruling coalition descended into public infighting on Tuesday as the Greens’ Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck accused the liberal Free Democrats of Finance Minister Christian Lindner of breaking promises by delaying a controversial green energy law.Habeck also attacked a plan by Lindner to enforce painful cuts of up to €22 billion in next year’s budget and warned that Germany faced “major [financial] needs everywhere, especially in the areas of decarbonization and digitalization.”The spat highlights growing tensions in the government of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is leading a coalition with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The parties hold diverging opinions over how Germany should implement the EU’s green plans to slash carbon emissions by 55 percent by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050. That green energy dispute is complicated by a shortfall in tax income, which reduces the finan...

New York City is sinking due to its million-plus buildings, study says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

(CNN) — New York City is sinking under the collective weight of all of its buildings, a new study has found.This gradual process could spell trouble for a city around which the sea level has been rising more than twice as fast as the global rate — and is projected to rise between 8 inches and 30 inches by 2050.What’s more, scientists expect more frequent and extreme rainfall events such as nor’easters and hurricanes due to the human-fueled climate crisis.“We’re a ways off from the ocean simply moving in,” said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist at the US Geological Survey. “But we’ve had a couple of major hurricane events with Sandy and Ida in New York where heavy rainfall caused inundation in the city, and some of the effects of urbanization have allowed water to come in.”The paper, published in the journal Earth’s Future, aims to show how high-rise buildings in coastal, riverfront or lakefront areas could contribute to future ...

Poll Adds To Debate Over School Receivership Powers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

An ongoing battle over state power to take over underperforming schools and districts comes to a new head this week, as a new poll released Tuesday shows most state residents support the state-control policy — the day before opposition advocates are scheduled to rally on Beacon Hill for its removal.A bill dubbed the “Thrive Act” would remove the power of the state to “receive” schools and districts with low performance, partially based on statewide standardized testing. The state’s teachers’ unions have thrown their support behind the Thrive Act, and will be among the educators, students, parents and other advocates who knock on lawmakers’ doors on Wednesday to ask for them to sign on to the bill.Democrats for Education Reform, a more moderate education group that supports charter schools, keeping statewide standardized testing as a graduation requirement and state receivership, commissioned the poll conducted by MassINC Polling G...

Trump makes video appearance in New York criminal case, trial date tentatively set for late March

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

By MICHAEL R. SISAK (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump made a video appearance Tuesday in his New York criminal case, with the judge tentatively setting a trial date for late March of next year. The hearing lasted about 15 minutes.Trump’s video feed was muted most of the hearing, allowing him to confer freely with his lawyer, Todd Blanche, who sat by his side in Florida in front of a backdrop of American flags.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.NEW YORK (AP) — A recent $5 million defamation verdict hasn’t kept Donald Trump quiet. Will a stern warning from the judge in his Manhattan criminal case?That’s the question looming over a hybrid hearing Tuesday where the former president is set be instructed on new rules barring him from using evidence in the hush-money case to attack witnesses who could testify against him.Trump won’t have to show up to court for the afternoon hearing at a M...

Russia extends arrest of US journalist Evan Gershkovich by 3 months, his parents barred from hearing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Tuesday extended the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by three months in a closed-door hearing emblematic of the secrecy that has marked the case against the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia on spying charges.Gershkovich, a 31-year-old American citizen, was ordered held until Aug. 30. He had been arrested in March on espionage charges on a reporting trip in Russia. He, his employer and the U.S. government have denied the charges.Tuesday’s pre-trial hearing wasn’t announced in advance, and the entire case has been wrapped in secrecy.Russian authorities haven’t detailed what — if any — evidence they have gathered to support the espionage charges. Various legal proceedings have been closed to the media. No details immediately emerged about whether Gershkovich attended Tuesday’s hearing or what was said. Tass said the session was closed because the report...

The FDA approved a new drug for hot flashes. Here’s why it shows ‘a lot of promise’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

Hanna Webster | Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe Food and Drug Administration last Friday approved fezolinetant, or Veozah, to treat hot flashes for women in menopause. The non-hormonal drug treatment is the first of its class and represents an option for women who cannot take hormones.Menopause occurs when women do not get a period for 12 consecutive months, usually beginning between ages 45 and 55. Hot flashes are the most common menopausal symptom and can interfere with quality of life. Of those in menopause, more than 80% of them suffer from hot flashes.More women are entering menopause as well, as people are living longer and the substantial Gen X generation ages into menopause.“It’s great that this is going to market,” said Dr. Beth Prairie, an OBGYN and preventive medicine physician at Allegheny Health Network Midlife Women’s Associates and the chief medical officer of West Penn Hospital. Dr. Prairie has specialized in menopausal medicine for more than 15 years and said...

South Bay elementary school secured after firearm found in student's backpack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego police officers secured a South Bay elementary school campus on Monday after a firearm was discovered in a student's backpack, according to district officials.Officers with SDPD were dispatched to Finney Elementary School, a Chula Vista Elementary School District campus near Palm Avenue, after receiving a report from the school that there was a firearm in the backpack of a primary student.According to Chula Vista Elementary School District officials, the firearm was reportedly put in the backpack of the student by an adult at home by mistake.Finney Elementary School was placed on a secure campus notice by law enforcement, but the district said it was not under a lockdown. The firearm was then safely retrieved by officers. No gunshots or injuries were reported. MTS routes still impacted as strike enters second week Finney Elementary was reopened after police determined that there was no longer a threat to students and staff.All parents and guardians were noti...

Aid agency chief: Taliban say guidelines on female NGO staff resuming work close to finalization

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The head of a major international aid agency said Tuesday that key Taliban officials told him in meetings that they are close to finalizing guidelines that will allow Afghan women to resume working for nongovernmental organizations. But they were unable to give a timeline or details when pressed.The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab — the Islamic headscarf — correctly and were not observing gender segregation rules. In April, they said this ban extended to U.N. offices and agencies in Afghanistan. There are exemptions in some sectors like health care and education.Days before the NGO order came into effect, the Taliban barred women from universities, having already stopped girls from going to school beyond sixth grade. Last November, women were banned from public spaces, including parks. In January, the Taliban said they were working on guidelines for women to return to work at ...

Pedro Almodóvar rides into the Western in a Cannes short about gay cowboys

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:48 GMT

CANNES, France (AP) — “Pedro! Pedro!” shouted the Cannes crowd before Pedro Almodóvar unveiled his latest film, “Strange Way of Life,” a 31-minute Western starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke as cowboys and former lovers.There’s nothing quite like the fervor that greets a new film from Almodóvar, one of the world’s most beloved filmmakers. But that may have been doubly so for “Strange Way of Life” even though it’s a quarter the length of his usual output. So frenzied was the scene that many ticketholders never got in. When Almodóvar introduced his all-male cast on stage at the film’s Cannes Film Festival premiere, some in the audience had to cool themselves. John C. Reilly, president of this year’s Un Certain regard jury, kindly reached across the aisle with his hat to fan one excited moviegoer.“I was not sure that I’d make a Western in my life but at least I made a short,” Almodóvar said smiling the next day in an interview on a hotel terrace overlooking the Croi...