Staff Writer
The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved in a cliffhanger vote a major bill to protect nature and fight climate change. In a test of the EU’s global climate credentials, the legislature supported the European Commission plan in a razor-thin 324-312 vote with 12 abstentions.
Youssef al-Ramadan says he always feels guilty for having to put his wife and three children to work in order to survive — and now they might not be able to get by since international aid could stop flowing from Turkey. Standing outside his tent in a displacement camp in northern Idlib, he is worried that their income might not be sufficient to make ends meet if the United Nations Security Council cannot renew a humanitarian border crossing that has been a critical lifeline for him and some 4.1 million people in Syria’s rebel-held northwest. The
A group of congressional Democrats reported Wednesday that three large tax preparation firms sent “extraordinarily sensitive” information on tens of millions of taxpayers to Facebook parent company Meta over the course of at least two years. Their report urges federal agencies to investigate and potentially go to court over the wealth of information that H&R Block, TaxAct and Tax Slayer shared with the social media giant. In a letter to the heads of the IRS, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the IRS watchdog, seven lawmakers say their findings “reveal a shocking breach of taxpayer
The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth. NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. The region is relatively quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars. “Prepare to be awestruck!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted, noting that the image “presents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece.” “One year
Spain sweltered under an unrelenting heat wave Wednesday as temperatures started to build toward what is forecast to be a torrid weekend across southern Europe. Spain’s weather service said thermometers could potentially hit 45 C (113 F) in southeastern areas of the Iberian Peninsula, which are under alert for extreme heat. That mark was reached Monday in the village of Loja near Granada at the start of the heat wave that is causing restless nights across the country. More than 100 weather stations registered temperatures of at least 35 C (95 F) as early as 6
Kosovo’s government on Wednesday will reduce the number of special police officers stationed outside four municipal buildings in ethnic Serb-majority areas and hold new mayoral elections in each of the towns, in a bid to defuse tensions with neighboring Serbia that flared anew in May. Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that one-fourth of the special police forces would be moved away from the sites “taking into consideration that the situation at the municipal buildings has been comparatively much quieter in the last two weeks.” He added that more officers would be withdrawn based on the
A police official said officers killed six people Wednesday during new protests in Kenya against the rising cost of living, while a health worker said more than 50 schoolchildren in the capital, Nairobi, were tear-gassed. The opposition leader behind the demonstrations vowed they would continue until a new law imposing more taxes is repealed. The police official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said three people were killed in Mlolongo city in Machakos county, two in Kitengela town near Nairobi, and one in the
The U.N.’s top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a measure calling on countries to do more to prevent religious hatred in the wake of Quran burnings in Europe, over the objections of Western countries who fear tougher steps by governments could trample freedom of expression. Applause broke out in the cavernous chamber of the Human Rights Council on Wednesday after the 28-12 vote, with seven abstentions, on a measure brought by Pakistan and Palestine that was backed by many developing countries in Africa, as well as China and India, and Middle Eastern countries. The resolution comes in
A Greyhound passenger bus crashed into three tractor-trailers parked along a highway exit to a rest area early Wednesday in southern Illinois, killing three people and injuring 14 others, some seriously, state police said. The bus was traveling westbound along Interstate 70 in Madison County around 1:55 a.m. when it crashed into the three semis, Illinois State Police said, citing an initial investigation. Four people were taken to the hospital by helicopter and at least 10 others were taken by ambulance, state police said in a news release. Police did not immediately release details about those
A week after Princess Kate graced Centre Court at Wimbledon by taking a seat in the Royal Box, Queen Camilla made an appearance at the Grand Slam tennis tournament on Wednesday. The queen, the wife of King Charles III, was wearing a white dress at the All England Club, where the players on court dress all in white. When she arrived at the club, Camilla met with some ball boys and ball girls — the kids who run across the court chasing stray balls after a point is finished or a serve goes awry. The first
Strep is most common in children between the ages of 5 and 15. “My sore throats, you know, are always worse than anybody’s.” So declares Mary to Anne in “Persuasion,” Jane Austen’s 1817 book. Most of us can relate to this feeling. There is no such thing as “just a sore throat.” The pain, headache, fever and aches associated with a sore throat can make you feel terrible. While sore throats can occur at any time of year, strep throat is more common in the fall, winter and early spring. I am a professor of family medicine, a pharmacist and
Lise Meitner, in the front row, sits alongside many male colleagues at the Seventh Solvay Physics Conference in 1933. Corbin Historical via Getty Images Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated movie “Oppenheimer,” set for release July 21, 2023, depicts J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. But while the Manhattan Project wouldn’t have been possible without the work of many accomplished female scientists, the only women seen in the movie’s trailer are either hanging laundry, crying or cheering the men on. The only women featured in the official trailer for Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ are crying, hanging laundry
Little thoughtful gestures can make someone’s day. alashi/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea From expressing gratitude to surprising someone with a mug of hot chocolate on a cold day, adults tend to underestimate how positively others will respond to their random acts of kindness. I’m a behavioral scientist who teamed up with my research partner Nicholas Epley on research that showed how children and teens share this misunderstanding. We gave 101 kids who were 4-17 years old and 99 adults who were visiting a museum in Chicago
Novels about underwater adventures offer a glimpse at oceanic life. fotograzia via Getty Images When OceanGate, the deep-sea exploration enterprise, created a promotional video for its ill-fated US$250,000-per-head trip to see the wreck of the Titanic, it told prospective passengers to “Get ready for what Jules Verne could only imagine – a 12,500-foot journey to the bottom of the sea.” Those behind the video hoped viewers would recognize the allusion to the author of one of the most influential and widely read oceanic novels of all time, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” There are indeed eerie similarities between the 1870
Associated Press video journalist Mstyslav Chernov had just broken out of Mariupol after covering the first 20 days of the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian city and was feeling guilty about leaving. He and his colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, had been the last journalists there, sending crucial dispatches from a city under a full-scale assault. The day after, a theater with hundreds of people sheltering inside was bombed and he knew no one was there to document it. That’s when Chernov decided he wanted to do something bigger. He’d filmed some 30 hours of footage over
Water spills over the Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif. AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus The Klamath River runs over 250 miles (400 kilometers) from southern Oregon to the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. It flows through the steep, rugged Klamath Mountains, past slopes of redwood, fir, tanoak and madrone, and along pebbled beaches where willows shade the river’s edge. Closer to its mouth at Requa, the trees rising above the river are often blanketed in fog. The Klamath is central to the worldviews, history and identity of several Native nations. From headwaters in Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin-Paiute
Water spills over the Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif. AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus The Klamath River runs over 250 miles (400 kilometers) from southern Oregon to the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. It flows through the steep, rugged Klamath Mountains, past slopes of redwood, fir, tanoak and madrone, and along pebbled beaches where willows shade the river’s edge. Closer to its mouth at Requa, the trees rising above the river are often blanketed in fog. The Klamath is central to the worldviews, history and identity of several Native nations. From headwaters in Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin-Paiute
Ralph Yarl is showing signs of recovery after he was shot in April 2023 by a neighbor in Kansas City, Kan. ABC News Given the gunshot wounds to his head and arm, the fact that Ralph Yarl was able to celebrate his 17th birthday on May 7, 2023, is a modern-day miracle. Less than a month earlier, on April 13, Yarl had gone to pick up his twin younger brothers from a play date in the Northland section of Kansas City, Kansas. Instead of going to NE 115 Terrace, Yarl went a block away to NE 115 Street Place, where
Nick Brown, who recently stepped down as U.S. attorney in Seattle, announced Wednesday he’s running to be Washington’s next attorney general, setting up a contest with state Sen. Manka Dhingra, a longtime prosecutor herself. Brown, 46, served less than two years as the top federal prosecutor for western Washington before stepping down in June in anticipation of the campaign. He was the state’s first Black U.S. attorney. The Democrat previously worked as general counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee, as a litigation partner at a prominent Seattle law firm and — in a less common qualification for the
Vandals set fire and destroyed a seminal artwork by one of Italy’s most famous living artists early Wednesday outside Naples’ City Hall. By the time flames were doused, all that was left of the installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto was a charred frame. Pistoletto’s artwork, titled “Venus of the Rags” had been display in Naples since June 28. It featured a large plaster neoclassical nude Venus, inspired by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s 19th century “Venus with Apple,” picking through a mountain of rags. Pistoletto made several versions of “Venus of the Rags.” The first, in 1967, had a
Is non-English language music the future of the music business? Perhaps. The global music industry surpassed 1 trillion streams at the fastest pace, ever, in a calendar year, Luminate’s 2023 Midyear Report has found. The number was reached in three months, a full month faster than 2022. Global streams are also up 30.8% from last year, reflective of an increasingly international music marketplace. Additionally, Luminate found that two in five — or 40% — of U.S. music listeners enjoy music in a non-English language. And a whopping 69% of U.S. music listeners enjoy music from artists
Prosecutors rested their sexual assault case against Kevin Spacey in a London courtroom Wednesday after four men testified in the past two weeks that the Oscar winner preyed on them. Prosecutors read jurors statements Spacey gave investigators denying that he aggressively grabbed three men by the crotch and performed a nonconsensual sex act on a fourth. The defense is scheduled to begin presenting its case Thursday in Southwark Crown Court. The stakes are high, with Spacey facing a possible prison term if convicted. The 63-year-old American actor has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges that include sexual
Aryna Sabalenka reached the semifinals at Wimbledon for the second straight time, with a one-year break in between because she was banned from the tournament in 2022. Sabalenka, a Belarusian who is seeded second at the All England Club, had to sit out last year’s competition along with other players from her country and from Russia because of the war in Ukraine. She advanced Wednesday by beating Madison Keys 6-2, 6-4 on No. 1 Court. “It really feels amazing to be back in the semifinals. I can’t wait to play in my second semifinal at Wimbledon,”
If you can’t beat them, join them. In a major reversal, Domino’s Pizza said Wednesday it’s partnering with Uber Eats to make deliveries in the U.S. and 27 international markets. While franchisees in a handful of international markets like the Netherlands have been working with third-party apps for years, Domino’s has long said that partnering with delivery companies didn’t make economic sense in its 6,600 U.S. stores. Under the agreement, uniformed Domino’s drivers will still make the deliveries that customers order via Uber Eats, and Uber Eats will share data with Domino’s on delivery efficiency and incremental sales. Ann Arbor,
If you can’t beat them, join them. In a major reversal, Domino’s Pizza said Wednesday it’s partnering with Uber Eats to make deliveries in the U.S. and 27 international markets. While franchisees in a handful of international markets like the Netherlands have been working with third-party apps for years, Domino’s has long said that partnering with delivery companies didn’t make economic sense in its 6,600 U.S. stores. Under the agreement, uniformed Domino’s drivers will still make the deliveries that customers order via Uber Eats, and Uber Eats will share data with Domino’s on delivery efficiency and incremental sales. Ann Arbor,
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