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Maros Šefčovič hearing: Live updates on new Green Deal chief’s European Parliament grilling

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

Maroš Šefčovič, the Slovak commissioner nominated to oversee the Green Deal, faces a grilling in the Parliament about his expanded portfolio on Tuesday.Šefčovič — a senior member of Ursula von der Leyen’s college known as a steady pair of hands in Brussels — was tapped to take over former Dutch Commissioner Frans Timmermans’ duties as executive vice president, including oversight of the European Green Deal’s rollout, last month. As part of the reshuffle, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also decided to split off the climate-action portion of the portfolio and nominated former Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra as climate action commissioner, a position “under the guidance” of Šefčovič. A member of the center-left Social Democrats, Šefčovič is up for the Green leadership post at a perilous moment for EU climate policy. EU efforts to reduce greenhouse gases are being met with growing resistance as concerns mount over the costs to busine...

Trump’s bashing electric cars. He has lots of company in Europe.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and a chorus of conservative politicians in Europe are sharpening their attacks on electric cars, turning the economic disruption caused by the shift away from gasoline into a campaign issue on both sides of the Atlantic.Trump’s months of broadsides against the Biden administration’s “draconian and indefensible” electric vehicle policies provided a major theme for his visit last week to Michigan, where he told a crowd at an auto parts plant near Detroit that abandoning the internal combustion engine would be “a transition to unemployment and inflation without end.”As for the electric cars themselves, he said Wednesday night, they’re too expensive and “built specifically for people that want to take very short trips,” leaving drivers “panicked” about finding a place to charge. “They say the happiest day when you buy an electric car is the first 10 minutes you’re driving it.”In Europe, meanwhile, electric vehicles are being swept up in a wave of popu...

Scientists who paved way for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines win Nobel prize

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the Nobel prize in medicine for their work on messenger RNA technology, which enabled the development of the first vaccines against COVID-19. The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, which is responsible for selecting the winner of one of science’s most prestigious prizes, said on Monday that the discoveries “were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”mRNA vaccines work by delivering into the body genetic instructions for building proteins that are present in the virus being immunized against. That spurs cells to create those proteins, which the body then recognizes as foreign and attacks; training the immune system and creating protection against the actual virus. In the early 1990s, Karikó, from Hungary, was working at the University of Pennsylvania looking at how mRNA could be used in medicine. She was joined in her research by U.S. colleague Weissman, an immunologis...

EU’s Borrell confident that US will continue backing Ukraine

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

The EU’s top diplomat expressed confidence that the United States will continue to support Ukraine, even after lawmakers in Washington dropped a funding package for Kyiv in order to avert a government shutdown.“I’m sure this decision will be reconsidered and altogether, we’ll continue to be on your side,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Kyiv on Monday, referring to the controversial funding move demanded by Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, similarly downplayed the decision by the U.S. Congress, which he labeled as an “incident.”“We’re working with both sides of the Congress to ensure it doesn’t repeat again, under any circumstances,” Kuleba told reporters, speaking alongside Borrell. EU foreign ministers also expressed confidence that the U.S. will continue backing Ukraine as long as Joe Biden remains in office.France’s Catherine Colonna underlined that “President Biden expressed his commitment, so we have no doubt that the...

Column: A long, bumpy road for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox comes to an end. Now comes an intriguing offseason.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

When the Chicago White Sox dealt popular third baseman Jake Burger to the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline, sending Sox fans into a tizzy, no one could have predicted it also would be a death knell for the Cubs.Burger helped lead the Marlins past the Cubs in the wild-card race, hitting .306 with nine home runs, 28 RBIs and an .871 OPS in 52 games heading into Sunday’s finale. The Marlins went 18-9 from Aug. 31 on, clinching the spot and eliminating the slip-sliding Cubs on Saturday.White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams was fired shortly after consummating the deal with Marlins general manager Kim Ng. His firing had nothing to do with the trade, but in the end Williams not only helped an old friend from the Sox organization in Ng, but also helped deliver the eventual knockout blow to the Cubs.While Williams is toasting himself, Sox and Cubs fans can do a slow burn.The Burger Effect was a fitting epitaph for this unique season of Chicago baseball, in which the Sox ...

Orioles reset: Baltimore’s depth fueled its best regular season in decades. Now comes the real test.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

Judging by regular-season wins and losses, Mike Elias has built Baltimore’s best roster in his lifetime.But these Orioles want to be evaluated by more than that. Later this month, they will get the chance.The Orioles’ 101 victories mark the franchise’s most in the 162-game regular season since 1979, three years before Elias, their executive vice president and general manager, was born. Months before his first birthday, a Baltimore team that won 98 games added seven more in October to become the 1983 World Series champion. The Orioles haven’t hung a pennant since.This group can end that four-decade drought. Elias has constructed an overwhelmingly deep roster, nailing his early-round draft picks, making savvy veteran additions and executing under-the-radar trades that paid off exceptionally. En route to winning the American League East, Baltimore posted a winning record against all of the other four teams in what’s regarded as baseball’s most ...

Car drives through fence at airport, briefly disrupting operations, officials say

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

A car crashed through a fence at Maine’s busiest airport, traveled on a service road alongside a runway and then was abandoned, causing a brief disruption, officials said.The episode unfolded Sunday morning at Portland International Jetport, when the abandoned sedan was spotted after it had crashed into a second fence in a secure area of the airport, officials said. The 33-year-old driver was quickly located and charged with criminal trespass, leaving the scene of an accident, driving to endanger, and aggravated criminal mischief, police said.Airport officials closed the runway for about 45 minutes for a security sweep, but no flights were delayed. The motorist drove on a road alongside an airport runway but didn’t actually drive onto the runway or taxiway, said Zach Sundquist, the airport’s assistant director. No one was injured, and there was no threat to the public, police said.Portland,Maine, The Associated Press

Spin Master signs global toy licence deal for Dora, the new Dora the Explorer series

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

TORONTO — Spin Master Corp. says it has signed a deal for the global toy licence for Dora, the new reboot of the Dora the Explorer franchise coming next year.Financial terms of the agreement were not immediately available.The new animated Dora series is set to begin streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the spring of 2024 in the United States.Internationally, Dora will stream on Paramount+ and air on Nickelodeon channels in all markets where available.Spin Master says its Dora toy collection is expected to launch in the fall 2024.It is expected to include figures, dolls, playsets, vehicles, plush, role-play, games and puzzles, inspired by Dora, her companion Boots and other characters.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:TOY)The Canadian Press

Stock market today: US futures modestly lower after Congress narrowly averts a government shutdown

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

BANGKOK — Wall Street pointed modestly lower early Monday after Congress narrowly averted a U.S. government shutdown with a last-minute, weekend compromise.Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrials each ticked down about 0.2% before the opening bell Monday. After the worst month for markets this year, October begins with a slew of employment data. Reports on job openings, layoffs and the comprehensive monthly jobs report on Friday will give investors and economists new details on the country’s labor market, which has largely held up better than expected as the Federal Reserve cranked up interest rates in an effort to bring down inflation.Fed officials have hinted in recent weeks that rates will be likely remain elevated for longer than previously thought as the central bank tries to get inflation down its 2% target. Last week, the government reported that core prices rose 3.9% in August from a year ago, below July’s reading of 4.2% and the slowest such increase...

Work starts on turning Adolf Hitler’s birthplace in Austria into a police station

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:46 GMT

BRAUNAU AM INN, Austria (AP) — Work started Monday on turning the house in Austria where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 into a police station, a project meant to make it unattractive as a site of pilgrimage for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.The decision on the future of the building in Braunau am Inn, a town on Austria’s border with Germany, was made in late 2019. Plans call for a police station, the district police headquarters and a security academy branch where police officers will get human rights training.On Monday, workers put up fencing and started taking measurements for the construction work.The police are expected to occupy the premises in early 2026.A years-long back-and-forth over the ownership of the house preceded the overhaul project. The question was resolved in 2017 when Austria’s highest court ruled that the government was within its rights to expropriate the building after its owner refused to sell it. A suggestion it might be demolished was dropped.Th...