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Under-fire minister Zac Goldsmith quits with blast at UK climate ‘apathy’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

LONDON — Minister Zac Goldsmith quit the British government Friday with a stinging attack on Rishi Sunak’s environmental record. His exit comes a day after MPs took him to task for sticking up for Boris Johnson.In a highly-critical letter to the U.K. prime minister, the environment minister — who once ran for London mayor and was placed in the House of Lords by Johnson — said “this government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.” The dramatic exit comes after Goldsmith, a longstanding environmentalist, was criticized by a cross-party committee for his role in backing Johnson. The privileges committee argued Thursday that allies of the former prime minister had led a “coordinated campaign to interfere with” its work investigating Johnson’s conduct. Goldsmith was criticized for retweeting a social media post branding the committee a “kangaroo court.” The committ...

EU leaders resume migration talks but Poland and Hungary’s governments slow progress

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders opened a second day of migration talks Friday as Poland and Hungary continued to block progress after they were outvoted earlier this month on a plan to share refugees arriving in Europe among the 27 member countries.Some leaders said that Poland and Hungary seemed to be fighting a battle started years ago, when well over 1 million migrants entered Europe, most of them refugees fleeing Syria, in 2015 and sparked one of the bloc’s biggest crises. Others said the two simply must not be permitted to break EU rules.“My feeling was there’s a lot of bitterness about the debates on migration from 2015,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told reporters at EU headquarters in Brussels. “If you just say no to everything and everybody else tries to compromise that doesn’t really work out.”Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said that “Hungary was totally adamant” about having the issue removed altogether from the leader’s final summit commu...

Affirmative action is out in higher education. What comes next for college admissions?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

Colleges across the country will be forced to stop considering race in admissions under Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, ending affirmative action policies that date back decades. Schools that have relied on race-conscious admissions policies to build diversity will have to rethink how they admit students. It’s expected to result in campuses that have more white and Asian American students and fewer Black and Hispanic students.The impact of the decision will be felt most strongly at the nation’s most selective colleges, which have been more likely to consider race as one of many factors in admissions. But some less selective universities also consider race, and hundreds of colleges may need to adjust their admissions systems in response to the decision.Colleges say they’re still analyzing the decision, but it’s sure to have a dramatic impact nationwide. Here’s what we know so far.WHEN WILL THE RULING TAKE EFFECT?Today’s incoming high school senior...

Poland detains Russian hockey player on suspicion of spying

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish authorities have detained a Russian hockey player who competes in a top Polish league on suspicion of spying, officials said Friday.“Russian spies are falling one by one!” said Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister and chief prosecutor. “A spy who operated under the guise of an athlete was caught.”Ziobro said the suspect played for a first league club and was the 14th member of a spy network who has been arrested.The National Prosecutor’s Office said the man, who was arrested on June 11, was accused of participating in an organized crime group and acting on behalf of foreign intelligence against the interests of Poland. Such acts are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.The state news agency PAP reported that the organized crime group was being used by Russia to monitor railway routes leading to Ukraine. Poland is a major hub for Western weapons going to Ukraine in support of its fight against Russia’s invasion.The Associated Press

Dutch semiconductor machine export restrictions to come into force in September

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch companies that create machines that make advanced processor chips will be required to have an export license before they can be sold overseas starting in September, the government announced Friday.The new measure that was first announced in March, “is country neutral,” the government said. But it is seen as part of a U.S. policy that aims at restricting China’s access to materials used to make such chips, which can be used in military technology. The requirement will notably affect Duch company ASML, the world’s only producer of machines that use extreme ultraviolet lithography to make advanced semiconductor chips. The Dutch government has prohibited the Veldhoven-based company from exporting some of its machines to China since 2019.″We have taken this step in the interest of our national security. It is good that the companies concerned now know where they stand. This way they can adapt to the new regulations in time,” Foreign Trade and Developme...

In the news today: Pair of key economic reports out today

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Pair of key economic reports coming todayStatistics Canada will release its report this morning on how the economy fared in April when it releases its reading of gross domestic product for the month.The agency’s early estimate for April that it released last month had pointed to a gain of 0.2 per cent.Another key report out today comes from the Bank of Canada, which will release its business outlook survey and its Canadian survey of consumer expectations.The readings on the economy come ahead of the Bank of Canada’s next interest rate decision on July 12.Here’s what else we’re watching …B.C. must change forest strategy: wildfire reportBritish Columbia’s independent forests watchdog says the provincial government is not doing enough to protect forest lands from the risk of catastrophic wildfires.The B-C Forest Practices Board ...

Cheaper competition for Humira is hitting the market, but savings will depend on your insurance

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

Patients who take the autoimmune disease treatment Humira may see some price relief when several lower-cost, biosimilar versions of the AbbVie drug reach the U.S. market in July. But lower pharmacy bills may not happen right away — or at all — for some patients. That’ll depend largely on your insurance coverage. Here’s a closer look. WHAT IS HUMIRA?It’s an injectable biologic drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Patients usually take it twice a month.Biologic drugs are made from living cells instead of by mixing chemicals and have led to major advances in treating immune-system disorders, eye diseases and some cancers since the late 1990s.IS HUMIRA EXPENSIVE?The list price (or initial price) for a month’s supply of Humira is $6,922, according to AbbVie. Patients typically don’t pay that much out of pocket every month. Instead, it depends on their prescription drug coverage, which might still bring large bills until a plan’...

Attacks on LGBTQ community largely influenced by events in the U.S.: advocates

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

Wilbur Turner has witnessed his fair share of hate since he came out as a queer man 27 years ago in Alberta. He’s seen it from pockets of the Christian right and from the then-Progressive Conservative government in his home province when it opposed same-sex marriage in the mid-2000s. In the years since, documented attacks against the LGBTQ community have ebbed and flowed and moved from mostly behind closed doors to public spaces like schools and libraries. Turner, the founder of LGBTQ rights group Advocacy Canada, said recent events in Canada have been largely influenced by what’s been happening south of the border. “It is pretty well organized. There’s quite a number of different groups that have popped up across Canada that are fuelling this,” he said from his home in Kelowna, B.C. “It’s really based in Christian nationalism.”Bearing the brunt of the attacks are transgender, non-binary and racialized people in the queer community, ad...

B.C. must urgently change forest strategies or face more wildfire disasters: report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s independent forests watchdog is calling for the provincial government to make critical changes to how it manages forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.The report, released Thursday by the B.C. Forest Practices Board, says risk mitigation currently focuses on areas near communities, but leaves the wider forest landscape “severely vulnerable.”It comes as the largest wildfire in the province’s history, the Donnie Creek wildfire, continues to burn out of control in the remote northeast.“The key is there’s an urgency to this,” board chair Keith Atkinson said in an interview. “We’re obviously experiencing, maybe, our most severe year in front of us.”The report says in 2017, 2018, and 2021, B.C. experienced its three largest wildfire seasons in 102 years on record, affecting 34,000 square kilometres of land.“If the way forests and fire are managed doesn’t change, B.C. will face ma...

A pair of key economic reports coming from Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:32 GMT

OTTAWA — A pair of key economic reports are due out this morning.Statistics Canada will release its report on how the economy fared in April when it releases its reading of gross domestic product for the month.The agency’s early estimate for April that it released last month had pointed to a gain of 0.2 per cent.The other report is coming from the Bank of Canada which will release its business outlook survey and its Canadian survey of consumer expectations.The readings on the economy come ahead of the Bank of Canada’s next interest rate decision on July 12.The central bank raised its key policy rate earlier this month to 4.75 per cent in its continuing fight to bring inflation back to its target of two per cent.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2023.The Canadian Press