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EU won’t ‘dilute’ ambition, says new climate chief

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

The EU’s new Green Deal chief won’t backtrack on the bloc’s climate ambitions — but he won’t push for more, either. Slovakian Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is following in Frans Timmermans’ footsteps amid a growing political backlash against parts of the EU’s new green rulebook, with conservative lawmakers and some member governments calling for Brussels to slow down or pause its rollout of new environmental legislation.While stressing the need to “react to some of the worries,” Šefčovič insists he’s intent on defending the bloc’s efforts. “We are not going to dilute our ambition, that would be like shooting ourselves in the foot,” he told POLITICO and other media outlets today in his first interview since he was named the Commission’s executive vice president in charge of the Green Deal last week.But asked whether he would campaign for more stringent targets to reduce emissions — such as reaching climate neutrality in 2040 as the Un...

Wagner chief Prigozhin buried in private ceremony in St. Petersburg

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried during a low-key ceremony in his home city of St. Petersburg, the departed warlord’s press service said Tuesday.The funeral was held “in a closed format,” according to a post on Prigozhin’s company Concord’s Telegram channel. The mercenary-turned-mutineer was buried in the Porokhovskoye cemetery, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.The location and time of the funeral were kept tightly under wraps until Tuesday, but local Russian media started speculating over the ceremony after they reported tight security measures at several other cemeteries in St. Petersburg. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attend the funeral.Prigozhin led Russia’s Wagner Group of fighters, including on the front line in Ukraine, before he launched an aborted uprising against the Kremlin in June. He died in a fiery jet crash last week two months to the day aft...

See which drugs Biden is targeting first for Medicare price-lowering talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is targeting the blood thinner Eliquis, diabetes treatment Jardiance and eight other medications for Medicare’s first-ever drug price negotiations as it seeks to lower medical costs for Americans.The administration on Tuesday released a list of the 10 drugs for which prices will be negotiated directly with the manufacturer. The move is expected to cut costs for many patients, but it faces litigation from drugmakers and heavy criticism from Republican lawmakers, and it will be years before consumers notice any savings.The effort is a centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s reelection pitch as the Democrat seeks to show Americans he’s deserving of a second term because of the work he’s doing to lower costs for them while the country is struggling with inflation. But like the drug negotiations, many of Biden’s biggest policy moves take time to roll out, and his challenge is to persuade the public ...

3M agrees to pay $6 billion after US military said faulty earplugs led to hearing loss

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

New York (CNN) — 3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to resolve roughly 300,000 lawsuits alleging that the manufacturing company supplied faulty combat earplugs to the military that resulted in significant injuries, such as hearing loss.In a release, 3M said the agreement is “not an admission of liability” and that the payout will come over several years and encompass $5 billion in cash and $1 billion in stock.“The products at issue in this litigation are safe and effective when used properly. 3M is prepared to continue to defend itself in the litigation if certain agreed terms of the settlement agreement are not fulfilled,” the company said.The earplugs were used by the US military in training and combat from 2003 to 2015. Veterans accused 3M of selling defective earplugs that caused hearing loss and tinnitus, according to a 2021 Wall Street Journal report.The earplugs were made by Aearo Technologies, a company 3M bought in 2008. Aearo tried filing for bankrupt...

Emerging group of synthetic opioids may be more potent than fentanyl, study warns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

(CNN) — A group of novel synthetic opioids emerging in illicit drugs in the United States may be more powerful than fentanyl, 1,000 times more potent than morphine, and may even require more doses of the medication naloxone to reverse an overdose, a new study suggests.Nitazenes are a synthetic opioid, like fentanyl, although the two drugs are not structurally related. In the small study published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open most of the patients who overdosed on nitazenes received two or more doses of the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, whereas most patients who overdosed on fentanyl received only a single dose of naloxone.“Clinicians should be aware of these opioids in the drug supply so they are adequately prepared to care for these patients and anticipate needing to use multiple doses of naloxone,” the researchers, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, Lehigh Valley Health Network based in Pennsylvania, and other US insti...

Doctoral student arrested on murder charge in fatal shooting of UNC faculty member, source says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

(CNN) — The suspect in the fatal shooting of a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday has been identified as a doctoral student at the school, a state official briefed by local law enforcement told CNN.Tailei Qi is in custody on charges of first-degree murder charge and having a gun on education property, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office booking report.District Attorney Jeff Nieman confirmed the charges against Qi. The suspect will have his first court appearance in Hillsborough, North Carolina, at 2 p.m., Nieman told CNN.Qi’s photo was shared by law enforcement as a “person of interest” on Monday, and he was taken into custody about an hour and a half after the shooting, according to the source.The same photo was on Qi’s UNC biographical page, which listed him as a graduate student in the department of Applied Physical Sciences. The page, which has been deleted but is available on the Internet Archive’s Wayback ...

Hurricane Idalia is gaining power; possible catastrophic storm surge on Florida’s Gulf coast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

Hurricane Idalia is gaining strength over the hot waters of the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a projected landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a major Category 3 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The result could be catastrophic storm surge.Idalia, which became a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday, was 120 miles west of the Dry Tortugas and 275 miles south-southwest of Tampa as of 11 a.m., traveling north at 14 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. Life-threatening storm surge and winds are “becoming increasingly likely” for parts of Florida, the National Hurricane Center said. Evacuation orders and school closures were already in effect along the Gulf Coast.If the hurricane arrives during high tide, storm surge could reach 8-12 feet in some areas, DeSantis said.“If you’re there in that storm surge, you’re putting your life in jeopardy,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. “Please heed those orders. You don’t have to leave the state. You don’t have to go h...

Kim says North Korea must be ready against US-led invasion plots, while US, allies start new drills

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for the military to be constantly ready for combat to thwart its rivals’ plots to invade, state media said Tuesday, as the U.S., South Korea and Japan held a trilateral naval exercise to deal with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats. The U.S. and South Korean militaries have been separately holding summer bilateral exercises since last week. North Korea views such U.S.-involved training as an invasion rehearsal, though Washington and its partners maintain their drills are defensive. Kim said in a speech marking the country’s Navy Day on Monday that the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been made unstable “with the danger of a nuclear war” because of U.S.-led hostilities, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.He accused the U.S. of conducting “more frantic” naval drills with its allies and deploying strategic assets in waters around the Korean Peninsula. Kim also cited a recent U.S.-South Korean-Jap...

No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise is diagnosed with blood cancer and undergoing treatment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2-ranking House Republican, said Tuesday he has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is undergoing treatment.Scalise, 57, said he will continue to serve in the House. He described the cancer as “very treatable” and said it was detected early. The Louisiana Republican was among several people wounded in 2017 when a rifle-wielding attacker fired on lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Scalise was shot in the hip and endured lengthy hospitalizations, multiple surgeries and painful rehabilitation. The cancer diagnosis came, Scalise said, after he had not been feeling like himself in the past week. Blood tests showed some irregularities and after additional screening, he said he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.“I have now begun treatment, which will continue for the next several months,” Scalise said in a statement. “I expect to work through this period and in...

Stock market today: Wall Street rises following updates on consumer confidence, job openings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street Tuesday as two economic reports suggested the economy is cooling enough for the Federal Reserve to pause hiking interest rates.The S&P 500 rose 0.9%, adding to the weeks’ early gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 135 points, or 0.4%, to 34,696 as of 11:29 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq rose 1.4%.The Conference Board, a business research group, reported that consumer confidence tumbled in August, surprising economists that were expecting levels to hold steady around the strong July reading. Consumer confidence and spending have been closely-watched amid persistent pressure from inflation.Also on Tuesday, the government reported that job openings fell more than expected by economists. The report also showed that the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell sharply for the second straight month, clear signs that the labor market is cooling in a way that could reduce inflation.A strong job market has been credited as a bulwark ...